mm l\l I M i!% I L WAV J l,fl 



D THE CHURCH 






Book n Vfi^ 

Copyright fl?. \°l ^ 

COPYRIGHT DEPOSIT. 




Charles S. Holt 



The Brotherhood 
and the Church 



REPORT OF THE THIRD CONVENTION OF 

THE PRESBYTERIAN BROTHERHOOD 

OF"AMERICA, AT PITTSBURG 

FEBRUARY TWENTY-THIRD 

TO TWENTY-FIFTH 

NINETEEN-NINE 




PHILADELPHIA, PA. 

THE PRESBYTERIAN BOARD OF PUBLICATION 

1909 



to ^ 



Copyright, 1909, by the Trustees of the Presbyterian Board of 
Publication and Sabbath-School Work 



Published June, 1909 



Cla.A, 

JUL 16 1909 



THE 

PRESBYTERIAN BROTHERHOOD 

OF AMERICA 

Council and Officers 

Charles S. Holt, President Chicago, 111. 

Ealph W. Harbison, Vice President Pittsburg, Pa. 

William R. Farrand, Recording Secretary Detroit, Mich. 

Charles T. Thompson, Treasurer Minneapolis, Minn. 

Hugh H. Hanna, Chairman Executive Com., Indianapolis, Ind. 

J. W. Axtell, Nashville, Tenn. 

John Willis Baer, Los Angeles, Cal. 

John H. Converse, Philadelphia, Pa. 

Charles W. Dabney, Cincinnati, Ohio 

John H. Finley, New York, N. Y. 

James D. Husted, Denver, Colo. 

Edward D. Ibbotson, Utica, N. Y. 

Cyrus H. McCormick, Chicago, 111. 

A. B. T. Moore, Cedar Rapids, Iowa 

John L. Severance, Cleveland, Ohio 

Selden P. Spencer, St. Louis, Mo. 

George H. Stone, Tacoma, Wash. 

J. Fithian Tatem, Haddonfield, N. J. 

A. R. Taylor, Decatur, 111. 

Douglas M. Wylie, Baltimore, Md. 

Ira Landrith, General Secretary, Nashville, Tenn. 

Henry E. Rosevear, Associate Secretary, Chicago, 111. 

National Headquarters 
328 Wabash Avenue, Chicago, III. 



CONTENTS 

PAET I 

CONVENTION PREPARATION 

PAGE 

Programme and Proceedings 9 

PAET II 

DEVOTIONAL ADDRESSES 

Preparation for Service. John Timothy Stone, D.D 23 

Communion Address. Maitland Alexander, D.D 36 

Partnership in Service. John Douglas Adam, D.D 38 

Christ's Appeal to the Christian Man. John Douglas 

Adam, D.D 50 

A Surrendered Will. Hugh H. Hanna 60 

Power for Service. John Balcom Shaw, D.D 62 

PART III 

BROTHERHOOD ACTIVITIES 

Report of the Council 77 

Open Parliament on Brotherhood Methods 100 

Greetings from Pittsburg. James H. Gray 120 

Greetings from the Brotherhood of St. Andrew. H. D. W. 

English 123 

Greetings from the Brotherhood of Andrew and Philip. 

Joseph W. Powell 126 

Greetings from the Men's Movement in the United Presby- 
terian Church. John A. Crawford 131 

Greetings from the Baptist Brotherhood. Eev. Fred E. 

Marble, Ph.D 134 

5 



6 CONTENTS 

PAGE 

Greetings from the Brotherhood of the Disciples of Christ. 

Rev. P. C. Macfarlane 139 

Greetings from the Brotherhood in the Southern Presby- 
terian Church. Robert W. Davis 141 

Greetings from the Brotherhood of the First Presbyterian 

Church of Pittsburg. W. F. Dalzell 143 

Eesponse in Behalf of the Delegates. A. R. Taylor, LL.D. 145 

Open Parliament on Brotherhood Problems 149 

The Presbyterian Brotherhood of America: Its Programme 
and Outlook. Charles T. Thompson 165 

PART IV 

CONVENTION ADDRESSES 

The Man for the Hour in the Church. Robert Johnston, 
D.D 177 

The Brotherhood and the Supply of Ministerial Leadership 
in the Church. George B. Stewart, D.D 196 

The Brotherhood and the Home Missionary Enterprise of 
the Church. William C. Rader, D.D 207 

The Brotherhood and the Foreign Missionary Programme 
of the Church. Robert E. Speer 225 

The Brotherhood and the Support of Our Denominational 
Agencies. John M. Gaut 244 

The Brotherhood and the Breadwinner. Warren E. Wil- 
son, Ph.D 255 

The Brotherhood and the Bible. Edward Mack, D.D 268 

The Brotherhood and the Boy. William Mather Lewis. . . . 279 

The Brotherhood and the Social Message and Ministry of 
the Church. Josiah Strong, D.D 296 

A Message and Prayer at the Closing Session. John ClarTc 
Hill, D.D 312 

The Challenge of the Church to the Brotherhood. John 
McDowell, D.D 316 



PART I 



The Presbyterian Brotherhood 

CONVENTION PREPARATION, PRO- 
GRAMME AND PROCEED- 
INGS 

The Third Convention of the Presbyterian 
Brotherhood of America was held at Pittsburg, 
Pa., February 23 to 25, 1909. The day sessions 
were held in the First Presbyterian Church, and 
the night sessions in the Exposition Music Hall. 
There were sixteen hundred and forty-eight 
registered delegates at the convention, and the 
night sessions averaged fully three thousand 
men in attendance. 

For several months prior to the convention a 
well-organized committee of Pittsburg Brother- 
hood men had been actively at work in local 
preparations. Wide publicity was given to 
the convention announcements and programme 
throughout the church and in the local and 
national press. 

The Local Convention Committee was com- 
posed as follows: W. F. Dalzell, chairman; 
James H. Gray, vice chairman; George D. 
Edwards, secretary; John E. Potter, treas- 
urer ; T. D. McCloskey and John S. Cort. The 
subcommittees, with their chairmen, were as fol- 
lows: Finance, Ralph W. Harbison; Publicity, 

9 



10 THE PRESBYTERIAN BROTHERHOOD 

T. D. McCloskey; Places of Meeting and Deco- 
ration, W. F. Dalzell ; Transportation, John W. 
Clark; Hotel Accommodations, E. T. Jackson; 
Eeception, Charles P. Lang; Ushers, William 
Gates, Jr. ; Music, James Rae ; Registration, 
John S. Cort ; Information, Samuel F. Morton : 
Entertainment, Graham C. Wells. The amount 
raised and expended by the Local Convention 
Committee was $3,721.62, and all bills were paid. 
The National Council selected as the conven- 
tion theme, The Brotherhood and the Church, 
and arranged the following programme : 

TUESDAY AFTERNOON, FEBRUARY 23 

Hugh H. Hanna, Indianapolis, Presiding 

(Making Ready) 

3 : 30 Praise and Prayer Service. 

3:45 Quiet Hour: Preparation for Service. John Timothy 

Stone, D.D., Baltimore, Md. 
4:15 Communion Service. In charge of Maitland Alexander, 

D.D., Pittsburg, Pa. 

TUESDAY EVENING 

Charles S. Holt, Chicago, Presiding 

(The Hour and the Man) 

7:30 Service of Song. Led by E. W. Curry, Pittsburg, Pa. 
8:00 The Man for the Hour in the State. President John 

H. Finley, LL.D., New York. 
8:45 The Man for the Hour in the Church. Kobert John- 
ston, D.D., Montreal, Canada. 

WEDNESDAY MORNING, FEBRUARY 24 

(Ways of Working) 

9:30 Song Service. 

9:45 Business Session. Appointment of Committees. 
10:00 Report of National Council. Charles S. Holt, Presi- 
dent. 



PITTSBURG CONVENTION 11 

10:30 Quiet Hour: Partnership in Service. John Douglas 
Adam, D.D., East Orange, N. J. 

11:00 Open Parliament on Brotherhood Methods. Con- 
ducted by Andrew Stevenson, Chicago, 111. 

WEDNESDAY AFTERNOON 

(Pulpit Leadership, America's Evangelization and Brotherhood 
Fellowship) 

2:00 Devotional Service. 

2:15 The Brotherhood and the Supply of Ministerial 
Leadership in the Church. President George B. 
Stewart, D.D., Auburn, N. Y. 

2:45 The Brotherhood and the Home Missionary Enter- 
prise of the Church. William Rader, D.D., San 
Francisco. 

3:30 Greetings from Pittsburg and from Other Brother- 
hoods. 

4:15 to 5:30 Reception to Delegates in Charge of the 
Brotherhood of the First Presbyterian Church 
of Pittsburg. 

WEDNESDAY EVENING 

(Brotherhood Ministry to the Unsaved) 

7:30 Service of Song. 

8:00 The Brotherhood and the Evangelistic Opportunity 
of the Church. John F. Carson, D.D., Brooklyn, N. Y. 

8:45 The Brotherhood and the Foreign Missionary Pro- 
gramme of the Church. Robert E. Speer, New York. 

THURSDAY MORNING, FEBRUARY 25 
(Brotherhood Extension and the Church and Labor) 

9:30 Business Session. Reports of Committees. 

10:00 The Brotherhood and the Support of our Denomi- 
national Agencies. Judge John M. Gaut, Nashville, 
Tenn. 

10:30 The Brotherhood and the Breadwinner. Associate 
Secretary Warren H. Wilson, Ph.D., New York. 

11:00 The Presbyterian Brotherhood of America: Its 
Progress and Outlook. Charles T. Thompson, Min- 
neapolis, Minn. 

THURSDAY AFTERNOON 
(The Brotherhood, the Bible and the Boy) 
2:00 Devotional Service. 

2:15 The Brotherhood and the Bible. Professor Edward 
Mack, D.D., Cincinnati, Ohio. 



12 THE PRESBYTERIAN BROTHERHOOD 

-■Ad The Brotherhood and the Boy. Principal William M. 
Lewis, Lake Forest, 111. 

3:15 Open Parliament ox Brotherhood Problems. Con- 
ducted by Ira Lanclrith. D.D.. General Secretary, Nash- 
ville, Tenn. 

4:15 Quiet Hour: Po^ver eor Service. John Balcom Shaw, 
D.D., Chicago, 111. 

THURSDAY EVENING 
(The Call of Society and the Challenge of the Church) 

7:30 Service of Soxg. 

7:15 The Brotherhood axd the Social Message axd Min- 
istry of the Church. Josiah Strong, D.D., New 
York. 

8:30 The Challexge of the Church to the Brotherhood. 
John McDowell, D.D., Newark, X. J. 

The programme as announced was carried out 
in its entirety, excepting that the address of 
Rev. William Rader was given on Wednesday 
evening instead of at the afternoon session, 
Dr. Carson being prevented from coming to the 
convention through bereavement in his congre- 
gation. The vacancy in the programme on 
Wednesday afternoon was filled by Dr. Adam 
with a second devotional address. 

The preparatory session of the convention 
opened on Tuesday, February 23. at 3 : 30 p.m., 
with Mr. James D. Husted, of Denver, presid- 
ing, in place of Mr. Hugh H. Hanna, of Indian- 
apolis, who was unavoidably detained at home. 
The communion service, in charge of Maitland 
Alexander, D.D., assisted by thirty-two elders, 
was a most appropriate beginning of the con- 
vention, and its influence was felt in each sub- 
sequent session. 



PITTSBURG CONVENTION 13 

After the opening service Mr. Charles S. 
Holt, of Chicago, president of the Presbyterian 
Brotherhood of America, presided over the con- 
vention sessions, and Mr. Allan Sutherland, of 
Philadelphia, was elected recording secretary. 

In pursuance of a vote of the convention the 
president appointed the following committees: 

COMMITTEE ON NOMINATIONS 

D. Draper Dayton, Minnesota, Chairman 

Eldon R. James, Ohio 

C. T. Edwards, D.D., Wisconsin 

William O. LaMonte, Illinois 

Harvey S. McLeod, New York 

W. H. Watt, Oregon 

Rev. A. M. Buchanan, West Virginia 

Dr. J. A. Flemming, Maryland 

B. A. Bookman, Illinois 

Rev. R. H. Taylor, Pennsylvania 
Dr. W. F. King, Indiana 
John Fulton, Pennsylvania 
Volnie S. Powell, Iowa 
Rev. J. F. Shepherd, Missouri 
W. I. McNair, Kentucky 

COMMITTEE ON RESOLUTIONS AND BUSINESS 

J. Fithian Tatem, New Jersey, Chairman 

W. D. Biggers, Michigan 

Cornelius P. Kitchel, New York 

W. A. Cook, D.D., West Virginia 

Hon. John T. Morrison, Idaho 

Rev. W. E. Bryce, Ohio 

James Ratcliffe, Kansas 

John Murray, Colorado 

James H. Gray, Pennsylvania 

Rev. E. H. Montgomery, Indiana 

W. E. Couffer, Illinois 

C. W. Coker, Iowa 
Samuel S. Morse, Missouri 
President C. H. Remmelkamp, Illinois 
G. W. Bull, D.D., Pennsylvania 



14 THE PRESBYTERIAN BROTHERHOOD 

COMMITTEE ON CORRESPONDENCE 

J. M. Barkley, D.D., Michigan, Chairman 

W. M. Hindman, D.D., Ohio 

Ledyard Cogswell, Jr., New York 

E. Palmer Gallup, Colorado 

H. N. Fine, Indiana 

W. C. Genung, New Jersey 

George D. Edwards, Pennsylvania 

E. C. Bell, West Virginia 

Robert E. Ross, Illinois 

The convention received the following tele- 
gram of greeting from the Men's Guild of the 
Arlington Avenue Presbyterian Church of 
Brooklyn, N. Y.: 

Give convention Men 's Guild 's greeting. I Corinthians 16 : 13. 

On Wednesday afternoon a reception was 
given the delegates by the Brotherhood of the 
First Presbyterian Church. Mr. W. F. Dalzell, 
president of the Brotherhood, extended a hearty 
welcome, which was responded to by President 
A. R, Taylor of James Millikin University, 
Decatur, 111. A delightful musical programme 
was rendered, and the exercises closed with the 
serving of refreshments. 

At the business session on Thursday morn- 
ing the convention committees reported as fol- 
lows: 

REPORT OF COMMITTEE ON NOMINATIONS 

Your Committee on Nominations submits the following 
names for membership of the Council to be elected at this 
convention : 



PITTSBURG CONVENTION 15 



John Willis Baer, of California 
Wm. R. Farra>;d, of Michigan 
Edward D. Ibbotson, of New York 
J. Fithian Tatem, of New Jersey 
George H. Stone, of Washington 
A. R. Taylor, of Illinois 
John H. Finley, of New York 

Also to fill the vacancy caused by the resignation of A. C. 
Stewart, ©f St. Louis, Selden P. Spencer, of St. Louis. 

D. Draper Dayton, 

Chairman. 

The report of the committee was adopted. 



REPORT OF COMMITTEE ON RESOLUTIONS AND 
BUSINESS 

Your Committee on Resolutions and Business submits the 
following : 

Resolved (1), That we, the Presbyterian Brotherhood of 
America, in convention assembled, hereby express our satis- 
faction and thankfulness at the increased activity of the local 
Brotherhoods in civic affairs. 

We conceive it to be a cardinal duty of our membership to 
enlist and participate in every enterprise which aims to moral- 
ize business, purify government and awaken civic responsibility. 
We believe that no man can be a good Christian who is not 
fighting the battles of good citizenship. 

We call the attention of the men of the church to the state- 
ment in the report of the National Council describing the results 
accomplished along these lines and also to the broad programme 
of work outlined for the future. We would vigorously empha- 
size the fact stated in the report that unless the church ade- 
quately deals with the questions of social duty now demanding 
attention she will be deserted by earnest men, while some other 
organization accepts the challenge and wins the victory. In 
tenement-house reform in our great cities, in the abolition of 
child and sweat-shop labor, in the case of dependent children, 
in the Americanization of the immigrants crowding to our 
shores, in the abolition of the saloon, in the nomination and 
election of proper officials and legislators, and in every other 
broadly Christian activity, the men of the church should lead. 

We believe that this is the Master 's work and that in doing 
it we are applying his teachings to the problems of modern 
life. Thus shall we help to establish the kingdom of God 



16 THE PRESBYTERIAN BROTHERHOOD 



among men, to do which is no less our duty than to bring men 
into that kingdom. 

Besolved (2), That, if the way be clear, the Presbyterian 
Brotherhood of America would welcome a convention represent- 
ing the men's organizations in all branches of the family of 
Presbyterian and Reformed churches in America, and the 
Council is authorized to cooperate with other bodies in plans 
toward that end. 

Besolved (3), That the designation of the first Sunday in 
December in each year as Brotherhood Day be approved and 
emphasized, and that the local Brotherhoods be urged to use 
that day as an opportunity for the presentation of the aims, 
purposes and work of the Brotherhood. 

Besolved (4), That we recognize the importance of work for 
boys and urge the prayerful attention of the local Brotherhoods 
to this work, and, under favorable conditions, the organiza- 
tion of local clubs or societies for boys; but we do not deem 
advisable the organization of a national Junior Brotherhood. 

Besolved (5), That we approve the organization of presby- 
terial and synodical Brotherhoods as efficient means of carrying 
forward this movement, and that the question of the relation 
of the synodical and presbyterial organizations to each other 
and to the National Brotherhood be referred to the National 
Council for their consideration and their recommendation to the 
next convention. 

Besolved (6), That in accordance with the recommendation 
of the Council the next National Convention be held in No- 
vember, 1910, at a place to be chosen by the Council. 

Besolved (7), That in the meantime a special effort be made 
to develop strong sectional meetings by synods or larger ter- 
ritories in various parts of the country. 

Besolved (8), That where synodical conventions are held the 
synodical organization shall make arrangements for the meet- 
ings; but in territorial conventions the National Council shall 
appoint a committee including all members of the Council 
residing in said territory and the representatives of the synod- 
ical organizations therein as a special committee to act in 
conjunction with the local committee of arrangements for the 
convention. 

Besolved (9), That we heartily indorse the movement for 
holding district conventions on the Pacific Coast at Los Angeles, 
San Francisco, Portland, Seattle and Spokane, and that the 
National Council be requested to cooperate by the appointment 
of a committee to act with the local committee to insure the 
success thereof. 

Besolved (10), That we rejoice in the great and effective 
moral uplift which has come throughout our national life in 
the line of temperance, for which we are truly thankful to God, 



PITTSBURG CONVENTION 17 



and we hereby express our sympathy with all movements toward 
this end and urge upon our membership the spirit of coopera- 
tion with every reasonable agency for its extension. 

Besolved (11), That we commend to the convention and to 
the entire membership of the Presbyterian Brotherhood of 
America the quarterly magazine of the National Council, ' ' The 
Presbyterian Brotherhood. ' ' 

Besolved (12), That the delegates to this convention be given 
an opportunity to help meet the expenses of the National Coun- 
cil for the ensuing two years and in cooperation with the Coun- 
cil be urged to secure contributions from the various Brother- 
hoods. 

Besolved (13), That we express our sincere appreciation of 
the work of the officers and members of the National Council 
during the past year and our great gratification at the very 
efficient service they have rendered the men of our beloved 
church. 

Besolved (14), That we recommend the earnest perusal of 
the report of the Council made at this convention as giving a 
most excellent summary of past experience in the work and 
future possibilities of the Brotherhood. 

Besolved (15), That we express the sincere thanks of this 
convention to the pastor, officers and Brotherhood of the First 
Presbyterian Church of Pittsburg, for their generous and 
bountiful hospitality ; to the General Committee of the Pittsburg 
Brotherhood for the complete and admirable arrangements, not 
only for the sessions of the convention but also for the com- 
fort and pleasure of the delegates; to the organist and chorus 
and all others who have in so many ways helped to make the 
convention such an unprecedented success; and to the news- 
papers of the city for their accurate and detailed reports of the 
proceedings. 

J. Fithiax Tatem, 

Chairman. 

The report was adopted. 

REPORT OF COMMITTEE ON CORRESPONDENCE 

The Committee on Correspondence would respectfully report : 
That nothing requiring response has come into its hands, and 
that no corresponding bodies to whom we might send greetings 
are at this time in session. It is matter for congratulation 
that such bodies have been heard on the floor of this conven- 
tion, not in terms of formal correspondence, but by their per- 
sonal representatives whom it has been our glad privilege to 
welcome to our sessions. 

J. M. Barkley, 

Chairman. 



18 THE PRESBYTERIAN BROTHERHOOD 

The report was adopted. 

The Committee on Correspondence subse- 
quently presented the following additional re- 
port : 

Your Committee on Correspondence recommends that the fol- 
lowing messages be sent, signed by the president of the con- 
vention : 

To the President, 

Washington, D. C. 
The Presbyterian Brotherhood of America in session at 
Pittsburg sends its congratulations to you as you are about to 
lay down the heavy responsibilities of your great office. We 
are grateful to God for making you such a vigorous champion 
of public righteousness and private virtue, and for keeping you 
in safety to finish your work as president. And as you retire 
to private life, we invoke upon you the continued blessing of 
God. 

Hon. William Howard Taft, President-Elect, 
Washington, D. C. 
As you are about to assume the duties of the great office to 
which the will of God and the suffrages of the people have 
assigned you, the Presbyterian Brotherhood of America, sitting 
in convention in Pittsburg, invokes upon you the blessing of 
God, and pledges to you its earnest support in all matters that 
make for that righteousness which exalteth a nation. 

The sending of these messages was enthusias- 
tically approved by the convention. 

In response to the message sent to the Presi- 
dent, the following telegram was received: 

White House, Washington, D. C, 

February 26, 1909. 

Mr. Charles S. Holt, President, 

Presbyterian Brotherhood of America, 
Pittsburg, Pa. 

Am deeply touched by your telegram. Please extend my 
warmest thanks to the Brotherhood. 

Theodore Eoosevelt. 



PITTSBURG CONVENTION 19 

At the session of the convention Thursday 
morning, subscriptions were taken for the work 
of the Council during the ensuing two years, 
which, supplemented by a collection at the night 
session, aggregated thirty-nine hundred dollars. 

The number of registered delegates at the 
convention, classified by states, was as follows: 

California 2 

Colorado 3 

Delaware 1 

Georgia 1 

Idaho 2 

Illinois 62 

Indiana 23 

Iowa 12 

Kansas 1 

Kentucky 7 

Maine 1 

Maryland 8 

Massachusetts 4 

Michigan 25 

Minnesota 6 

Missouri 11 

Nebraska 1 

Nevada 1 

New Jersey 34 

New York 89 

North Carolina 1 

Ohio , 168 

Oklahoma 1 

Oregon 1 

Pennsylvania (Presbytery of Pittsburg) 731 

Pennsylvania (outside of Presbytery of Pittsburg) . . 377 

Tennessee 3 

Virginia 1 

West Virginia 59 

Wisconsin 7 

Canada 2 

China 1 

Siam 1 

Syria 1 

Total 1,648 



PART II 



DEVOTIONAL ADDRESSES 
PREPARATION FOR SERVICE 

BY JOHN TIMOTHY STONE, D.D. 

About one hundred years ago, many remark- 
able men were born, men whose lives have meant 
much to the world of letters, science, statesman- 
ship and religion. Among these, in 1813, Robert 
Murray McCheyne, was born in Edinburgh. A 
strong student from childhood, a popular man 
among his fellows in academic halls, occasion- 
ally enjoying right scenes of gayety even in 
divinity halls, he entered his ministry deter- 
mined to prepare his soul constantly and effect- 
ively to do the full work of the Master. He 
studied the lives of God's chosen workers, as 
recorded in Scripture. He read the memoirs 
of men like Martyn. He listened to the burning 
words of Dr. Chalmers. At Stirling he heard 
Dr. Duff's appeal for India, and his heart 
cried out, "Here am I, send me." Being asked 
his view of diligent preparation for the pulpit, 
he replied with Ex. 27: 20, "Oil . . . beaten for 
the light, to cause the lamp to burn always." 
His work at Dundee was marvelous. "Often 
upon waking, he sang a psalm of praise as he 
arose, to stir his own soul." "His incessant 
labors left him little time except what he spent 

23 



24 THE PRESBYTERIAN BROTHERHOOD 

in the direct exercise of devotion." His con- 
stant prayer was, "May God make the word 
fire ! ' ' We read in his diary, i i I must try to go 
to bed early on Saturday that I may rise a great 
while before day. " These early hours of prayer 
on the Sabbath he endeavored to observe all his 
life. 

But in March of 1843, he died, scarce thirty 
years of age. His life had warmed all Scot- 
land ; the force of his character is alive to-day. 
The volume of his life and letters is one of the 
most sacred and powerful in spiritual biog- 
raphy. 

This man answered the question before us 
to-day. Preparation for service? Wisely do 
we consider this theme before we enter upon the 
discussions of this great convention. Service 
without preparation is like utterance without 
thought. The spirit of God is with us as we 
pause to seek him, and know his leading. 

Careless seems the great Avenger; history 's pages but record 
One death-grapple in the darkness 'twixt old systems and the 

word; 
Truth forever on the scaffold, Wrong forever on the throne, 
Yet that scaffold sways the future, and, behind the dim un- 
known, 
Stancleth God within the shadow, keeping watch above his own. 

We are men in a world of men, but we are 
more. We are Christian men, and we have met 
together in the name of Jesus Christ to learn 
of him. To study, to plan, to organize, to act, 
without his mind, his heart, his purpose, his co- 
operation, will result in the "sounding brass, 



PITTSBURG CONVENTION 25 

or a tinkling cymbal." The men of the church 
of Christ have never faced graver conditions, 
vaster opportunities, more definite responsi- 
bilities, than to-day. Method, equipment, 
means, cooperation exist. The spirit of serv- 
ice, enthusiasm and brotherly love lives. The 
citadel of righteousness has transferred its 
armament to far-reaching seas, and the army of 
home-defense has become the navy of world- 
advance. The forts have shared their guns 
with the fleet, and the religion of Christ is plow- 
ing the far sea, and aiming her guns against the 
walled coast lines of heathendom, superstition, 
cruelty and ignorance. These vessels of ulti- 
mate peace are not manned simply by profes- 
sional pilots and captains, but thousands of lay- 
men now parade the decks, trained in various 
academies and coming from various climes. 

But what of the result? Motion and action 
are not enough. Blank discharge means noise 
and confusion. Aimless discharge means ridi- 
cule and defeat. Powder and ball, armament 
and men, enthusiasm and confidence, all these in 
themselves cannot avail. Even purpose, plan 
and perseverance are not sufficient in them- 
selves. The power of control and victory lies in 
the life of the Leader, in the spirit of the great 
Man who commands. But also in absolute obedi- 
ence to the great Commander. We may not see 
his chart, We may not gain his vision. We 
may not know his end. We hear his voice. We 
receive his command. We do his will. Prep- 



26 THE PRESBYTERIAN BROTHERHOOD 

aration is first quiet submission to him, then 
service, unflinchingly true, faithful to the very 
end. 

How have the great men for God prepared 
for service? Let the eleventh chapter of He- 
brews and other scriptural records answer. 
Abraham, ridiculed and alone, went out from 
the land of his fathers and his inheritance, not 
knowing whither he went. His was a life of 
faith, for God had prepared his heart. 

Subtle, unstable Jacob prepared for the 
princely life of Israel when he tenaciously clung 
to the angel of God as they wrestled throughout 
the night on the bank of the river. 

Joseph, the poor castaway, drawn from the 
pit by his brethren and sold to the Ishmaelites, 
prepared his heart for the saving of his nation 
amid the trials and disappointments of Egypt. 
Luring personal temptation could not tempt 
him from his preparatory course for God's 
great academic service! 

Moses, the young marvel of the Egyptian 
court, signally trained as a warrior, scholar and 
man of affairs, could not use his preeminent 
gifts to lead out God's people until driven into 
the wilderness for forty years. His heroic soul 
must be prepared to wield God's power rather 
than to utilize the best accomplishments and 
training of the world. 

Gifted Saul was rejected and David was 
chosen — why? Because the lad nurtured on the 
hillsides of Judaea had learned faith and confi- 



PITTSBURG CONVENTION 27 

dence in his God, and was thus prepared for 
service. The rejection of Saul's armor was 
typical. The crude sling of the shepherd boy 
accomplished where the skilled warriors of 
Israel were overcome in the presence of the 
boastful bravado of Goliath. The clanking of 
that rejected armor was the echo of God's 
voice refusing worldly efficiency in place of de- 
pendent faith. 

And what of Daniel? First, the youthful 
Daniel, with his three companions, refusing to 
eat of the king's food; then the aged Daniel 
schooled in all the training of the great Baby- 
lonian court, tempered as the steel that severs 
every opposing blade, loyally thrice kneeling 
with his windows open toward Jerusalem, know- 
ing that the eavesdropping enemy sought this 
very occasion for witness against him. 

John the Baptist prepared the way for the 
Master, but God prepared him, as in the desert 
he learned the communion of prayer and the 
companionship of the Most High. 

And how did the Lord Jesus Christ himself 
prepare his chosen men to do his will! A large 
share of those three years was spent in the train- 
ing of the Twelve in the wilderness, in the woods, 
on the Mount of Olives, in the temple. Out into 
the night, frequently he withdrew from all that 
he might pray for them, and for his kingdom, 
and he prayed with them, and talked with them. 
"Did not our heart burn within us, while he 
talked with us by the way?" His words of 



28 THE PRESBYTERIAN BROTHERHOOD 

counsel constantly gave them the secret of ef- 
fective service. "When thou prayest, enter 
into thy closet, and when thou hast shut thy 
door, pray to thy Father which is in secret; 
and thy Father which seeth in secret shall re- 
ward thee openly. " " For without me, ' ' he told 
them, "ye can do nothing." 

In those last days before the crucifixion, these 
were the words he spoke to them: "He that 
believeth on me, the works that I do shall he do 
also; and greater works than these shall he 
do; because I go unto my Father. And what- 
soever ye shall ask in my name, that will I do, 
that the Father may be glorified in the Son. 
If ye shall ask any thing in my name, I will 
do it." 

"These things have I spoken unto you, being 
yet present with you. But the Comforter, 
which is the Holy Ghost, whom the Father will 
send in my name, he shall teach you all things, 
and bring all things to your remembrance, what- 
soever I have said unto you." 

The "Lo, I am with you alway," of his last 
command, gave the secret how fully and com- 
pletely these early apostles followed his direc- 
tion. 

Read the first chapters of The Acts, and see 
how they followed in their preparation for serv- 
ice. Luke tells us that just before he ascended 
he said, "But ye shall receive power, after that 
the Holy Ghost has come upon you: and ye 
shall be witnesses unto me in Jerusalem, and in 



PITTSBURG CONVENTION 29 

all Judaea, and in Samaria, and unto the utter- 
most part of the earth.' ' 

After the ascension they went into an upper 
room, these disciples. "These all continued 
with one accord in prayer and supplication, with 
the women, and Mary the mother of Jesus, and 
with his brethren." "When the day of Pente- 
cost was fully come, they were all with one ac- 
cord in one place." "And they were all filled 
with the Holy Ghost, and began to speak with 
other tongues, as the Spirit gave them utter- 
ance. ' ' 

The marvelous Peter was prepared to do 
God's work. Peter, the weak and fluctuating 
coward of a few weeks before, is now the first 
to stand upon his feet with the Eleven, and lift 
up his voice for Christ. "And it shall come to 
pass, that whosoever shall call on the name of 
the Lord shall be saved." "Now when they 
heard this, they were pricked in their heart, and 
said unto Peter and to the rest of the apostles, 
Men and brethren, what shall we do? Then 
Peter said unto them, Repent, and be baptized 
every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ 
for the remission of your sins, and ye shall re- 
ceive the gift of the Holy Ghost." 

The early disciples continued daily with one 
accord in the temple, "praising God, and hav- 
ing favor with all the people. " " And the Lord 
added to the church daily such as should be 
saved. ' ' 

Told later not to preach in the name of Christ, 



30 THE PRESBYTERIAN BROTHERHOOD 

their preparation was such that they could say, 
"We cannot but speak the things which we have 
seen and heard." 

Stephen was a man filled with wisdom and 
the Holy Spirit, a man prepared by God in his 
inner life. His marvelous gifts and eloquent 
preaching resulted in so stirring the hearts of 
men that they mobbed him and stoned him to 
death. This very exhibit of trained, devoted, 
faith, must have prepared Saul of Tarsus for 
the marvelous vision on the Damascus highway. 

This Paul gained the preparation of soul that 
the universities of Asia Minor could not give. 
This learned scholar was soon afterward to be 
the champion of all the East for Jesus Christ. 
How did God prepare this noble soul — the 
scholar theologian and general of organized 
Christianity? When Saul of Tarsus heard the 
Saviour answer his question, "Who art thou," 
with the words, "I am Jesus whom thou perse- 
cutest," he said what every honest believer will 
say, "Lord, what wilt thou have me to do?" 
But his preparation for that service he himself 
affirms. "I was not disobedient unto the 
heavenly vision." "Immediately I conferred 
not with flesh and blood." Arabia became his 
school of preparation. His intellect was not 
sacrificed, but consecrated at the throne. In the 
silence and quiet of that throne of grace, as he 
plead in his letter to the Roman church, so he 
pleads with us. "I beseech you therefore, breth- 
ren, by the mercies of God, that ye present your 



PITTSBURG CONVENTION 31 

bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto 
God, which is your reasonable service. And be 
not conformed to this world: but be ye trans- 
formed by the renewing of your mind, that ye 
may prove what is that good, and acceptable, 
and perfect, will of God." 

If we are to prepare for Christian service, we 
need the heavenly vision, but we must not in 
this convention confer alone with flesh and 
blood. In prayer we shall find God revealed to 
us by his spirit in the life and words of Jesus 
Christ. We need first, inspiration, and here we 
shall find it. 

Inspiration means vision, extension, expanse. 

It means possibility. 

With Carey, that vision will give to us the 
power to 

Expect great things from God; 
Attempt great things for God. 

This power of prayer will give to us medita- 
tion. We will seek the word of God and then, 
hearing his voice and his direction, we will have 
no place for thoughtless criticism of God's word, 
but will find testimony and direction in God's 
word. 

I stood one day beside a blacksmith's door, 
And heard the anvil ring the vesper chime, 

Then looking in I saw upon the floor, 

Old hammers, worn with beating years of time. 

"How many anvils have you had?" said I, 
1 ' To wear and batter all those hammers so ? ' ' 

"Just one," he said, then said with twinkling eye, 
1 ' The anvil wears the hammers out, you know. ' ' 



32 THE PRESBYTERIAN BROTHERHOOD 



And so methought the anvil of God's word 
For ages skeptic blows have beat upon, 

And though the noise of falling blows was heard, 
The anvil is unharmed, the hammers gone. 



Meditation will result in clear thinking, and 
clear thinking will result in sympathy, coopera- 
tion, discrimination, application and sincerity, 
for "Thou desirest truth in the inward parts: 
and in the hidden part thou shalt make me to 
know wisdom." 

We will gain information. We will carefully 
study that we may present the truth aright. 
We will deal with facts instead of fiction. We 
will study to show ourselves "approved unto 
God. ' ' We will be open with all fairness to sug- 
gestion and consultation. Our conversation and 
companionship will add to our information, and 
experience will finally result as we learn. 

We will have common sense. The Bible says, 
' ' If any of you lack wisdom, let him ask of God, ' ' 
and in prayer we will learn divine sagacity and 
sacred wisdom. Well balanced for God, we will 
not fall, through indiscretion and carelessness. 

Such preparation will give to us purpose in 
the very beginning of our work. Purpose, 
which has the very assurance of conviction, a 
faith ever living and ready. "Now faith is the 
substance of things hoped for, the evidence of 
things not seen." Stability, fortitude, victory 
must result ! But is our preparation complete ? 

No ! Prayer is not merely a concrete expres- 
sion. Prayer is the living communion of the 



PITTSBURG CONVENTION 33 

soul with God. In the closet with Christ. In 
the sanctuary with Christ. The prayer in the 
sanctuary cannot be strong unless the prayer of 
the closet is a living power. But not only in 
the closet and in the sanctuary, but in the home, 
on the street, in life's common places. Any time, 
always, everywhere. In him we must "live, and 
move, and have our being. ' ' If we are to be pre- 
pared for service our communion with God must 
be vital and complete. 

Our saintly Rutherford said: "I urge upon 
you communion with Christ, a growing com- 
munion. There are curtains to be drawn aside 
in Christ that we never saw and new foldings 
of love in him. I despair that I shall ever win 
to the far end of that love, there are so many 
plies in it. Therefore, dig deep, and sweat and 
labor and take pains for him, and set by as 
much time in the day for him as you can. He 
will be won in the labor. ' ' 

Again McCheyne said: "Study universal 
holiness of life. Your whole usefulness depends 
on this. Your life preaches all the week. If 
Satan can only make you covetous, a lover of 
praise, of pleasure, of good eating, he has 
ruined your service. Give yourself to prayer 
and get your thoughts, your words from God." 

In 1867, General Gordon wrote to his sister : 
1 i I am more than ever convinced that the secret 
of happiness and willingness is in the indwelling 
of God. ... If we aspire to hold in the power 
of the new life we must cast away all hindrances, 



34 THE PRESBYTERIAN BROTHERHOOD 

and it must cost something of real value. We 
aspire to a closer and lasting communion with 
God, which is a high aspiration, but it needs 
much sacrifice. Do not think that all who aspire 
at close communion arrive at the same without 
parting with the eye of their personal comfort 
in many things. It is as self is given up, so a 
man is holy." 

This communion must be based upon our love 
to him. Forbes Eobinson writes: "I do not 
pray so much because my reason bids me, as 
because my affection forces me. I find in him 
one who knows me through and through, and I 
find comfort in pouring out my soul to him, in 
telling him all, much that I dare say to no one 
else. In letting him sift the good and evil I 
cannot help trusting him." 

I know not where his islands lift 

Their fronded palms in air; 
I only know I cannot drift 

Beyond his love and care. 

We are about to sit at the table of our Lord. 
It is his table. We are the men of his choice; 
the guests about his board. We are to break 
bread with him. By faith, we are to look into 
that face, upon whose brow the scars of the 
thorn crown may now be seen. The pierced 
hand passes to us, through his servants, the 
bread and the cup, his body broken and his 
blood shed for us. Are we to recognize him, 
and call God "Father," and call his Son our 
"Saviour, Brother and our Friend"? 



PITTSBURG CONVENTION 35 

Will you and I stand silent as with Christ, 

Apart from joy, or fear of life, to see by faith his face, 

To look if but for a moment at its grace, 

And grow by brief companionship more true, 

More nerved to lead, to do, to dare to do, for him at any cost? 

Men of the Presbyterian Brotherhood of onr 
far-reaching country, if we are to be prepared 
for service, we must be prepared by God, with 
God and in God. We must be prepared by 
abiding in Christ. "If ye abide in me, and my 
words abide in yon, ye shall ask what ye will. ' ' 
With all the manly fervor, with all the rugged 
hardihood, with all the intense zeal, with all the 
wise executive of our best selves, we must pre- 
pare to act at the throne. 

Worlds are charging, heaven beholding, 

Thou hast but an hour to fight; 
Now the blazoned cross unfolding, 

On, right onward, for the right! 
On, let all the soul within you 

For the truth's sake go abroad. 
Strike, let every nerve and sinew 

Tell on ages, tell for God. 

But we must strike with the power of God, 
and that power must be the living communion 
of our hearts with Jesus Christ. Thus may we 
be prepared for service. 

Spirit of God, descend upon my heart; 

Wean it from earth; through all its pulses move; 
Stoop to my weakness, mighty as thou art, 

And make me love thee as I ought to love. 

Teach me to love thee as thine angels love, 

One holy passion filling all my frame; 
The baptism of the heaven-descended Dove, 

My heart an altar, and thy love the flame. 



COMMUNION ADDRESS 

BY MAITLAND ALEXANDER D.D. 

We come this afternoon face to face with the 
Master and with his great promise sounding in 
our ears, we come in response to his call to 
claim the world for his kingdom. There are 
many incentives given us for our work. There 
is the great call of the work itself, there is the 
great call of the Master of men, there is the call 
of the masses of men who are living around us 
without God and without hope in the world — 
these things call us and stimulate us ; nay, they 
even thrust us into the work, and we find that if 
we desire to get the right view of the field and 
to get the right feeling in our hearts, we shall 
be constrained to come to the cross. It is at the 
cross alone a man himself can get right with 
God. It is at the cross alone that men can see 
with the eyes of the dying Redeemer the great 
drift of men toward sin and in sin. The only 
place where a man can make that love of which 
Dr. Stone has spoken this afternoon to kindle 
and burn in his heart is the cross. When you 
come here to this city to plan for our church 
and for the work of our beloved Master, to lay 
hold if you may upon the great things which are 
demanded of us as an arm of his church, it is 
the cross which will give us that high incentive 

36 



PITTSBUKG CONVENTION 37 

for sacrificial service which we so much need. 
When God finished wrestling with Jacob at 
Peniel, he said, " Arise, go up to Bethel," the 
place where he had first seen the angel ladder, 
the place where he had first seen the face of his 
God and where he had sworn to his eternal cove- 
nant. And in a like manner God says to us this 
afternoon that Bethel is insufficient but Calvary 
is all sufficient. The word he speaks to you and 
to me is, " Arise, and go to the cross," where 
first we knew the forgiveness of sin, where first 
we knew the love of God, where first was kindled 
the joy of salvation, where first we experienced 
the peace of God which passeth understanding. 
Do you want to work as the Master is working? 
Do it with the spirit of the cross. Do you want 
to love men as he loved them! You must come 
to Calvary. If I could make the service for you 
and myself this afternoon what I pray it may 
be, it would be this, that it may be the personal 
surrender of the heart of everyone to Jesus 
Christ ; that by this cross, by his precious blood, 
by his spirit of self-immolation and sacrifice, by 
the love of our Lord to his own work we may 
be like him. We may give our lives wholly for 
him. 



PARTNERSHIP IN SERVICE 

BY JOHN DOUGLAS ADAM, D.D. 

President Holt. — The keynote of the conven- 
tion at Indianapolis was enthusiasm and inspi- 
ration, at Cincinnati, practical suggestion. It 
has been our hope and plan that without losing 
either of these elements, this convention might 
be chiefly characterized by a spirit of devotion. 
To that end, instead of confining our devotional 
exercises to the opening of the morning session 
when attendance is apt to be scattering and at- 
tention divided, we have put into the very heart 
of each day's programme a quiet-hour address 
by men specially chosen for their spiritual 
power. And as we have already reminded our- 
selves that even the routine work of the conven- 
tion is the King's business, so we do not turn 
aside for devotion, but only climb a little higher 
on the same road as we listen to Dr. John 
Douglas Adam, of East Orange, New Jersey, on 
"Partnership in Service." 

Dr. Adam. — The theme upon which it is my 
privilege to speak to you is partnership with 
Christ in service. Consequently, the emphasis 
of our thought must gather round the inner vital 
relation to our living Lord. As Christian men 
we are the outward expression of the plan and 

38 



PITTSBURG CONVENTION 39 

purpose of Christ. We are the instruments in 
the world of his achievement, and as such I wish 
to speak of four great facts that gather round 
the idea of our relationship in service to our 
Master. 

The first thought to which I invite your con- 
sideration in this great attitude of partnership 
with Christ, is the thought of surrender. It 
seems to me that this word has become terribly 
hackneyed in our day. We are apt to think of 
a certain few things that men have given up by 
popular evangelical consent, and because a man 
has done this it is superficially said he has en- 
tered into a surrendered life. This is trifling 
with a great idea. I read awhile ago an article 
by Watts-Dunton, one of the greatest literary 
critics. The article was on Shakspere, and he 
took the opportunity to say that writers of fic- 
tion were divided into two great classes, those 
who used their imagination and those who were 
used by their imagination. It was a subtle dis- 
tinction and he said that those who are used by 
their imagination were men like Homer and 
Shakspere, and that lesser men used their im- 
agination; and I thought as I read, how true 
of every department of life. There is the poli- 
tician who uses political ideas for his own ends, 
and there is the statesman who is used by politi- 
cal ideas for national and universal ends. There 
is the man who uses ideas for his ambitions, and 
there is the man who is willing to let ideas be- 
come the passion of his life that he might further 



40 THE PRESBYTERIAN BROTHERHOOD 

the cause for which he lives. That is surrender. 
It is not to try to use Christ for your church 
or your Brotherhood, but to let your church or 
your Brotherhood be used by the power and the 
purpose of the Son of God. That is surrender. 
For, remember, surrender implies that Christ is 
the general in this campaign of service. He has 
left the work to us, but he has not left the plan. 
He holds it in his own hand. It is only omnipo- 
tence that could unfold it. It is only he who 
could lead men in the strategic points of its un- 
folding. It is only a general who, by the educa- 
tion of a tactician, can direct a vast army, bat- 
talion by battalion. And when we think of the 
kingdom of God upon earth, with all its vast 
problems, nation to be joined to nation, cen- 
tury to century, where are the men who can 
grasp the plan for such an end? We are thrown 
back upon the great fact that our living Lord 
has the plan in his own hand, and with our petty 
views of surrender we do not begin to enter into 
his purposes until 

We lie in dust, life's glory dead, 
And from the ground there blossoms red, 
Life that shall endless be. 

Surrender is the first thought of partnership 
with Christ in service. Not the surrender of 
merely giving up two or three trifling things, 
but the abandonment of life to the aims and ends 
to which Christ has called us. When we sur- 
render in this sense, then Christ undertakes the 



PITTSBURG CONVENTION 41 

responsibility for some things with which some 
of ns are burdened. Christ has sworn to take 
care of the surrendered man's soul and he need 
not worry about it. 

You remember what Wilberforce said to the 
woman who asked him during his great cam- 
paign against slavery, "Wilberforce, are you 
thinking about your soul during these days?" 
And he said, "I had forgotten that I had a 
soul." That might be irreverent flippancy, or 
triumphant faith, and those who knew him knew 
it was the expression of faith. He committed 
his soul to Christ. Many men spend much time 
thinking of their souls' development. Our souls' 
development is a by-product. Christ has under- 
taken that problem. Our business is to worship, 
to serve and not forever be taking the tempera- 
ture of our inner life, wondering how we feel 
spiritually, if happy or sad. Spiritual develop- 
ment is a by-product. Not only will Christ take 
care of our souls if we worship and serve him, 
but he will take care of our influence. There 
are a great many Christian men who spend 
sleepless nights and ruin their power by worry- 
ing over their influence; and there are many 
who take up an artificial attitude to others be- 
cause they are worrying about their influence. 
They wonder if they are making an impression 
and in this attitude of mind become self-con- 
scious and consequently weak. It matters not 
whether it is the consciousness of one's good 
self or bad self. All self-consciousness is weak- 



42 THE PRESBYTERIAN BROTHERHOOD 

ness. If the Apostle Paul had worried over his 
apparent lack of influence it would have broken 
his heart. And the apparent lack of it breaks 
many a man's heart to-day because he carries 
the burden of it. But Jesus Christ undertook 
to care for the influence of Paul, and we know 
how gloriously he did it. If you cannot destroy 
a grain of sand, do you think you can destroy a 
man's influence by intrigue or belittlement when 
the sacred thing is in the grasp of Almighty 
God? Never! God will carry every surren- 
dered man's influence on into the future, ac- 
cording to his promise. So much for the idea 
of surrender. 

The second thought in partnership with 
Christ in service is companionship. As surren- 
dered partners with Christ we are his com- 
panions. It is not enough to have Christ as a 
memory. There are a great many Christian 
people who think of Christ only in the Gospels, 
but remember that Christ is not imprisoned in 
a segment of history, and the memory of Christ 
is not enough to keep us. The glory of mediaeval 
Spain cannot keep Spain to-day. The memory 
of the intellectual and artistic brilliance of an- 
cient Greece cannot make Greece great to-day. 
Christ as an ideal is not enough. I hear a good 
man say, ' ' The Sermon on the Mount is enough 
for me. } ' Well, it is not enough for me. I need 
something more than the Sermon on the Mount. 
It is possible for an ideal to be so impressively 
transcendent as to make it absolutely impos- 



PITTSBURG CONVENTION 43 

sible of realization. I go into the Vatican and 
see the great creations of Raphael, some of the 
finest conceptions and some of the most perfect 
artistic productions the world has ever seen. 
Does that make me an artist? The very power 
of the work almost paralyzes my aspirations. 
The regions round about the highest mountain 
peak of the Himalayas, Mount Everest, present 
the most magnificent scenery in the world, and 
yet no human foot has ever trodden its im- 
maculate summit. So the Sermon on the Mount 
is too much for me. What I need is some one 
who will help me to realize it in some measure 
in my life. I need a helping hand and a com- 
panion as well as an ideal. Christ as an ideal 
will never save America. We need the com- 
panion Christ and, brothers, he is here. As an 
actual fact he is here this morning. This is no 
exaggeration. This is no poetic expression. 
There is no such thing as distance in the spir- 
itual life. Christ is here. The soul knows no 
distance. He is in our midst at this moment 
with all his love and power as really as when 
among his disciples long ago. And this is the 
heart of Christianity. He walks with us through 
the hours of the day, moment by moment. It is 
the comradeship of Christ that is the soul of the 
church and the inspiration of all her achieve- 
ments until the end of days. Oh, the thought of 
it ! That Lord who died and rose is here. What 
should that mean in life? It should mean two 
things at least. It should mean that every 



44 THE PRESBYTERIAN BROTHERHOOD 

Christian man who lives under the power of 
his presence should live a satisfied life. We 
should show to the world that we are satisfied 
from within and not from without. Until Christ 
himself fills our cup from within we can never 
make an impression on the world for him. Does 
Christ satisfy you? You can only give to the 
world the overflow of your own cup, nothing 
more. 

Another thing, if we are the companions of 
Christ, in so far as we become his companions, 
we shall be free from discouragement. Of 
course, we are human and his presence is some- 
times eclipsed, eclipsed by various causes; but 
in so far as we are able to realize his immediate 
presence we are free from discouragement. 
What is discouragement? Discouragement is 
disillusioned egotism. Discouragement is inner 
bankruptcy, imagined or real. Discouragement 
comes when a man has reached, or thinks he has 
reached, the end of his inner resources; when 
his capital is eaten up he is discouraged. No 
man ever comes to an end of his moral and 
spiritual capital who lives a daily life of com- 
munion and fellowship with the Lord Jesus 
Christ, and in so far as we realize that — of 
course, again I say we are human, and we ex- 
perience moments of eclipse — but in so far as 
we realize the Master's presence we become con- 
querors over discouragement. There is no 
harder blow to the cause of Christianity in the 
world than for the world to see a discouraged 



PITTSBURG CONVENTION 45 

Christian worker. It matters little how tri- 
umphantly you can proclaim the deity of Christ 
from the intellectual point of view, if your life 
is discouraged you have parted with the supreme 
argument in favor of Christ. 

The third thought of which I would speak is 
appropriation. In the attitude of companion- 
ship with Jesus Christ for service we appro- 
priate from him. There is no activity without 
appropriation. Go into the steel works. All 
that industry would be silenced if there was no 
ore in the mine. They must appropriate the 
material before they can work it over. So, too, 
a man must eat and sleep before he can work. 
People talk about there being a need for ethical 
revival. There is vast need, and I think we are 
having it. But let me remind you that no ethical 
revival can be permanent and deep until it has 
been nurtured by the grace of God. Those who 
say otherwise do not know the history of Chris- 
tianity in the world nor the history of the growth 
of moral ideas in the world. There must be ap- 
propriation from God of his grace before we 
can transform it into outer moral reality in the 
world. Man can create nothing. Just as the 
dry and trampled sea beach receives the music 
of the incoming tide and is cleansed and re- 
newed by it, so our souls, sin-stained and sad- 
dened, find absolution and cleansing by the tide 
of the love and grace of God as we appropriate 
it through Christ, and that is the basis of our 
activity. In the attitude of companionship with 



46 THE PRESBYTERIAN BROTHERHOOD 

Christ we appropriate what God has to give us. 
That is the one great truth which, in my judg- 
ment, is in Christian Science, that has had such 
a vogue in our day through the New Thought 
and other movements. That behind man and 
around his life is omnipotent power in which 
he may rest as a boat rests on the bosom of the 
ocean, and that is New Testament truth, and it 
belongs to us to appropriate it. The grace and 
power of God to live, not in our feeling, not in 
our physical foods, but to live in peace and tri- 
umph because there is an ocean of spiritual 
reality which surrounds us. If we only believe 
it this morning in spite of our weakness there 
is around us everlasting strength that nothing 
can break. Therefore, in companionship with 
Christ we appropriate from him the strength, 
the forgiveness which he yearns to communicate. 
The fourth thought in connection with our 
theme is outward expression. In our partner- 
ship with Christ we must give outward expres- 
sion to his plan and purpose ; we must give con- 
crete reality to what we appropriate. Remem- 
ber that noble impulses with our souls are not a 
final sign of our spirituality. Our noble im- 
pulses are God's until we make them ours by 
transforming them into life. I have no right to 
congratulate myself and say I had glorious feel- 
ings at the convention. Those glorious feelings 
are the Lord's. This convention will be great 
and strong not by what we hear but what we 
do as a result of it. The great business of a 



PITTSBURG CONVENTION 47 

Christian man's life is to translate the purpose 
of Jesus Christ into common things. The mod- 
ern sculptors do not work in marble as Michel- 
angelo did in his great statue of Moses. I am 
told the sculptor in our day spends his genius 
on pliant wax and the stonecutter immortalizes 
the genius of the sculptor. It is the stonecut- 
ter not the sculptor who gives permanence to 
work. The sculptor gives the idea, the pattern. 
So is it in life. Jesus is not working on the out- 
side of things. He is working on the wax, the 
impressionable inner life. He is working on 
some of us at this moment. Shall we give con- 
crete objective reality to his inner work in the 
common things of life? Shall we turn Christ's 
soft impressions into marble? That is the su- 
preme question. It is this mixture of Christ's 
purpose with common life that is everything. 
It is not paint and canvas that makes a picture 
great. The thing that makes the picture is the 
mixture of personality with the physical ele- 
ment. That is what makes a bridge great, be- 
cause it is the mixture of iron and mathematics. 
And the men who put the visions and overtures 
of Christ into this Brotherhood will make it 
great, as it incorporates the plans of Christ 
through willing men in common life for the 
kingdom of heaven on earth. We must incar- 
nate the ideas of Christ in cooperation with 
others. That is why we have a Brotherhood. 
There was a meeting of various Christian de- 
nominations in this city on Monday evening, a 



48 THE PRESBYTERIAN BROTHERHOOD 

forerunner of this convention, a beautiful mani- 
festation of interdenominational courtesy at 
which reference was made to the Federation of 
Protestant Men's Brotherhoods. From the re- 
port of the meeting which I read, a layman of 
the Catholic Church said, " There is religion in 
cooperation." That is the note to be struck. 
Individualism in service is selfishness. If Christ 
is a general he must bring us together in serv- 
ice. The Catholic Church has won the respect 
of newspapers and politicians because she is 
substantially a unit in her purposes. And it is 
the need of Protestantism at this hour that we 
shall be under the dominion of Christ for united 
efforts. Not for your Brotherhood nor mine, not 
for my scheme nor for yours, but for Christ's 
great plan. It is not to swell your membership. 
It is to fall at his feet and say, ' ' How can we as 
a Presbyterian Brotherhood enter into our true 
place in the great campaign for the triumph of 
his will in the world?" 

The great need of the moment is statesman- 
ship in Protestant Christianity for interdenomi- 
national achievement. Not only should we have 
a Board of Home and Foreign Missions in our 
churches, but we should have a board just as 
real for interdenominational relationship in 
service. It is in the attitude of concrete service 
that we shall find one another. I have heard 
firemen in a fire-engine house discussing the 
right and wrong of certain fire appliances. 
Presently the gong rings and the discussion is 



PITTSBURG CONVENTION 49 

ended. They are off to serve. Let us not make 
union a fetish. Union is a by-product. It is not 
an end in itself. It is an incident, ultimate and 
inevitable, in the attitude of a passion for the 
kingdom of God. God send us some statesman, 
not to glorify denominations, but to help us 
stand faithful where the Lord Jesus Christ may 
place us in the great army of God, all one body 
we, until Christ shall see his plans for the 
world realized through the fidelity of surren- 
dered lives. 

President Holt. — I now have the great pleas- 
ure of exhibiting the silver lining — perhaps I 
should say the golden lining — to the cloud of 
disappointment which has come over us in miss- 
ing Dr. Carson's address. As announced, he is 
unable to be with us by reason of sudden and 
overwhelming bereavement in two families of 
his parish, from whom he does not feel at lib- 
erty to be absent at such an hour. Those who 
heard Dr. Adam's magnificent address this 
morning must have felt that they were in the 
presence of the strong wind, and the earth- 
quake, and the fire, and the still small voice; 
and the Lord was in them all. At a cost to him- 
self which we can hardly appreciate, Dr. Adam 
has consented to address us again this after- 
noon, and will now speak to us on "Christ's 
Appeal to the Christian Man." 



CHKIST'S APPEAL TO THE CHRISTIAN 
MAN 

BY JOHN DOUGLAS ADAM, D.D. 

Dr. Adam. — It was my privilege to speak to 
you this morning upon the subject of partner- 
ship with Christ in service. I would like at this 
time to speak to you upon the subject of Christ's 
appeal to us as Christian men in carrying out 
our part of his work. If Christ is the senior 
partner in this great undertaking where, then, 
is his point of contact with our personality? 
How is he to get the best out of us as his in- 
struments of activity in the world? How does 
Christ grip our lives for the carrying out of his 
purpose ? 

John Wesley observed that it was possible for 
a man to live a good life, to pass the bar of 
public opinion unscathed and to do some good, 
and yet not to have enough power to lift another 
life to better things. Now Christ has a certain 
work to do in the world which can only be done 
by power, and power is realized by the fulfill- 
ment of conditions. Nature is absolutely exact. 
Because you think it is cold enough to be freez- 
ing that does not make water freeze, not until 
the mercury reaches the point of freezing does 
it take place. The engineer might think it was 
time for the water to boil in the engine, but not 

50 



PITTSBURG CONVENTION 51 

until the water reaches the boiling point does it 
turn the water into steam. So that principle 
obtains in the spiritual realm. It is only when 
we pass the point of spiritual surrender that 
spiritual power will manifest itself. There is 
an inevitableness, an arbitrariness in the laws 
of the spirit world operating in souls just as 
exact as the laws which operate in the conden- 
sation of water. And in so speaking we are in 
no wise dishonoring the spirit of God. 

Christ appeals, first of all, then, in order to 
grip men, in order to give them power for the 
carrying out of his purpose, to the elemental in 
man. Christ tries to get a grasp of the ele- 
mental in man. Men live in layers, there are so 
many strata in our inner lives. Most men live 
on the upper layers alone. That is to say their 
living does not spring from the deeper depths 
of their being except in great moments of sor- 
row or joy. I can imagine a man in time of 
great sorrow saying : ' ' There are powers in me 
I never knew. There are energies in my soul 
which I never believed. ' ' It means that the ele- 
mental man has been struck. The larger reali- 
ties of his being have been reached. Something 
has broken the upper crust of life. That is what 
Christ is after in his men. He cannot do much 
with us until he breaks the upper crust and gets 
down to the elemental realities that lie in our 
nature. And when he grips us there we begin 
to realize the richness of our being, we feel cur- 
rents and tides in us of which we had no sus- 



52 THE PRESBYTERIAN BROTHERHOOD 

picion. But in order to get down into the ele- 
mental region Christ often meets with an ob- 
struction, and that is why men are sometimes 
unwilling to get down to their elemental selves. 
There is an obstruction which they are afraid to 
touch. For example, Abraham was told to stay 
in the land of Canaan, but he went to Egypt. 
Ninety-nine men out of a hundred would have 
told him he was right, but Abraham knew in his 
soul that he was wrong. While Abraham was 
in Egypt he lived a superficial life, and not till 
he came back to the true path of his life did he 
live his life of elemental reality. Jacob was a 
prosperous young man. He went far from home 
and made money, but he was haunted by re- 
ligion. Eeligion had got a grip of his heart, but 
only when he faced the brother whom he had 
wronged did spiritual reality come to Jacob's 
life, which had been absent for twenty years, 
and the man began to live amid the central 
truths of his being. It is possible for a man to 
live the superficial life without breaking into 
the inner depths. The transition from the sur- 
face to the inner depths may mean humiliation, 
the opening of a door in the life that had been 
closed for a generation. A painful operation 
may be necessary. Christ can get hold of that 
part of our inner life through which he trans- 
mits his power. We come up to that point and 
recede from it as the tide comes upon the beach 
and then goes back again. 

The second thing I would mention is that 



PITTSBUKG CONVENTION 53 

Christ appeals for concentration of mind. 
Whenever Christ takes hold of a man's life 
thoroughly the first thing that happens is that 
Christ endeavors to concentrate that man's 
mind. No man can live a spiritual life whose 
mind has not concentration. He may pray all 
day long. He may read the Bible and under- 
stand the Bible, but unless he has the power of 
mental concentration he is a weak man. The 
first thing that Christ emphasizes is that our 
minds shall bend to his purpose through us. 
Concentration is the pulse beat of character. 
Concentration upon what ? Upon his will. And 
when we thus concentrate we find two forces in 
collision, our baser inclination and the will of 
God. Just as the force in a bird's wing has to 
contend against gravitation, so must the will of 
God in us do battle against inert moods. The 
will of God is in us every moment seeking to 
capture the whole of our life. The battle be- 
tween God and self comes in the early morning. 
Shall it be the newspaper or prayer? The act 
of concentration upon the will of God is imme- 
diately beset by seductive influences; for ex- 
ample, it is beset by curiosity. Whenever we 
concentrate our minds upon the will of God, 
even at this moment, the temptation comes to 
supplant our concentrated thought by some idle 
curiosity. Who rang the bell? What is in the 
mail? What is in the newspaper? Curiosity 
draws a man away from the path of power in 
Christian life, and whenever we surrender to 



54 THE PRESBYTERIAN BROTHERHOOD 

an unsanctified curiosity we have broken the 
spell of Christ's control in our lives. Concen- 
tration of thought is tempted by thoughts of 
self-pity. Whenever a man becomes concen- 
trated upon the will of God there is the sheepish 
cry of his own lower nature, "Do not press me 
so hard. ' ' We have heard the voice again and 
again, and our cry to the cry in us is, "It is 
good for a man that he bear the yoke in his 
youth." Another temptation is that when we 
concentrate the mind upon the will of God it is 
beset by the thought of consequences. The 
thought of the consequences of a step which we 
know to be right is worldliness. Worldliness 
wants to see the consequences of a right step 
before it is taken. But if I know that the next 
step is right, I have no right to want to see 
around the corner. That is the essence of world- 
liness, and I have not been possessed by the 
heroic spirit of Jesus Christ until I am willing 
to let every step be guided by his wisdom who 
is the general of the campaign. 

Third. Christ appeals for worship. I do not 
use this word worship in a conventional sense. 
There is a temptation for men to substitute 
work for worship. There is a temptation to 
substitute worship for work. There are men 
who never pray as they ought, and there are 
men who never work as they ought. There is, 
of course, a real place for work and for prayer, 
but it seems to me that we must try to lift our 
idea of prayer to a higher level. What is 



PITTSBURG CONVENTION 55 

prayer? It is an instinct of the soul. A man 
tells me he doesn't believe in prayer. It is not 
so much a matter of belief as it is a matter of 
instinct. You might tell me that you do not 
believe in the tide. It does not matter whether 
you believe in it or not, it is going to flow, and 
prayer is the eternal tide in the soul of men 
toward God. But still I think we have degraded 
the idea of prayer. So many Christian people 
do not enjoy prayer because they are always 
begging from God. That is not prayer, it may 
be largely egoism. It is possible for a man to 
spend hours in prayer and simply accentuate 
his self -consciousness. I have known men who 
have prayed a great deal and in two or three 
instances they were very difficult people to get 
along with. Why? Because their earnestness 
was self -centered and all their praying was in 
behalf of their own lives. Paul did not ask 
people to pray for him. He asked them to pray 
for his work. And we, too, must observe pro- 
portion in our prayers. To pray for ourselves 
is not the first thing by any means, and that is 
why I say so many people do not relish prayer, 
because they strike the w T rong note; it is self- 
centered. The first element in true prayer is 
adoration, it is to behold the glory of God in 
the face of Jesus Christ; glory, that is the 
highest attitude of the soul. A large number 
of us have moved away from the true place of 
emphasis in worship, and Christ calls us back 
to worship. It is by beholding him we are 



56 THE PRESBYTERIAN BROTHERHOOD 

changed into the same image from glory to 
glory. Let us learn to spend time in the wor- 
ship of our Lord when we ask nothing. Prayer 
should be the outlet of the soul, in quietness 
adoring the wonders of the love of God in Jesus 
Christ. That attitude will bring us much more 
of an answer than many of our petitions to be 
made better. It is in that way Christ makes us 
better. It is by indirection the great gifts of 
God come. The man who seeks happiness di- 
rectly never gets it. The man who forgets all 
about happiness is the one who gets it. It is 
the man who forgets his soul's needs whose soul 
is enriched as he contemplates the unspeakable 
glory of Christ. God calls for worship. Let us 
learn, brothers, to stop praying all the time for 
ourselves in that painfully self-conscious atti- 
tude of personal advantage, and think of the 
love of Christ and the vast needs of other people. 

After adoration thanksgiving comes before 
we pray for ourselves. No man can give thanks 
without having a memory, and no man can give 
thanks without being contented, and no man can 
be contented without being happy. That is 
psychological fact. 

But Christ also appeals for heroism. Christ 
cannot carry out bis undertakings until we have 
responded heroically. Christ never appealed to 
selfishness in any man ; Christ always respected 
man, had faith in man. He saw the sin in man 
as no other did, but he also saw the elemental 
possibility, the splendid foundation for spiritual 



PITTSBUKG CONVENTION 57 

power that lay buried in human lives. Christ 
•appeals to the heroic always, for what is diffi- 
cult to do, and is it not this which has always 
won the splendid responses in men? What is it 
that wins men for the army? That they might 
have a picnic? No. It is the chances of this 
thing. How is it that Dr. Grenfell is able to 
get all the college men he wants to go to Labra- 
dor? Because it is an appeal to the heroic. 
Christ appeals to that basic reality in men, and 
the church of God must echo Christ's appeal. 
We are too apologetic, we are too feeble in our 
appeals to men. We let the blast furnaces and 
the noise overawe the fact that we stand for the 
greatest realities in the world, the message of 
Christ. I do not intend to speak of the direc- 
tions in which Christ is calling for heroism. I 
refrain from dwelling upon the sublime and 
dramatic aspects of this appeal. I think now of 
a boy who said he was willing to die for his 
mother. His mother said she did not want him 
to die for her, but she would like it if he would 
come in a little earlier at night. So I will not 
speak of the heroisms in the upper reaches to 
which Christ is calling us. Thank God for the 
men and women who have gone to the dark 
places, for the glorious souls who have not 
counted their lives dear unto themselves. There 
are heroisms to be reached every day before we 
reach their levels. Christ calls for heroism in 
the direction of thoroughness. It sometimes 
needs heroism to be thorough, Christ is the 



58 THE PRESBYTERIAN BROTHERHOOD 

enemy of scamped work, whether it is a steel 
structure or a sermon. How often we find a 
lack of thoroughness. We are too hurried to 
be thorough. We have our eyes too often on 
the next thing rather than on the thing in hand. 
How many put other men to all sorts of incon- 
venience and retard their spiritual life because 
they are inexact. It is our business to be on the 
minute. I have no right to keep a man waiting 
five minutes so that he becomes impatient and 
his spirit is disturbed and his whole day is 
spoiled simply through my carelessness. His 
impatience is no worse than my neglect. 

Christ appeals not only for heroism and thor- 
oughness, but for leisureliness, because it some- 
times needs heroism to be leisurely. Hurry is 
often unbelief. Hurry may be sheer weakness 
of soul. Hurry is a nonconductor of spiritual 
power. Leisureliness. You cannot play golf un- 
less you are leisurely. It is the leisurely man who 
wins; it is the psychology of the game. So in 
life there are certain lines along which Christ's 
power moves. It sometimes takes courage to 
wait leisurely for Christ's action and vindication. 

I would like to say one closing word about 
Christ's call for heroism in the confession of 
him. Gibbon says in his " Decline and Fall of 
the Roman Empire" that Christianity grew dur- 
ing the early Christian centuries through the 
confession of one life to another of the secrets 
of the gospel. Christ is to-day calling to us to 
confess him. Is confession not one of the lost 



PITTSBURG CONVENTION 59 

arts in many Christian lives? Is it not the one 
great longing of many perplexed hearts, that 
some one will speak to them in simple words of 
personal experience of the peace of Christ? The 
result of confession will be a large increase in 
knowledge in our own minds of spiritual truth. 
It will give divine things more reality to our- 
selves. What will happen when we let Christ 
grip our deeper life for his service? We will 
begin to revise our estimates of values. Very 
few things worry a man in this world when 
Christ has a grip of his real life. The things 
he once thought worth while begin to wither. 
There are only two or three things worth trou- 
bling about. A medical specialist told me the 
other day that men who have achieved great 
success sometimes say to him in his office that 
they have paid far too dearly for their fortunes 
and that if they had life to live over again they 
would be content with a humbler lot. 

That is the pathetic note; the world counts 
many a man successful, but he knows he is not. 
His success sometimes sneers at him, when he 
feels he has sold the best for the least. Multi- 
tudes of men realize that they have grasped an 
apple of ashes in exchange for the highest in- 
stincts of their spiritual life. What is success? 
It is to be true to what is highest in one's own 
life. It is to maintain contact with the will and 
purpose of Christ. It is to respond in our deep- 
est being to the overtures of our Divine Master 
in doing his will in cooperation with others. 



A SURRENDERED WILL 

BY HUGH H. HANNA 

The dominant, underlying thought that seems 
to have prevailed in this convention has been 
the submission of the will and the earnest 
prayer for guidance, and I have chosen for my 
thought in line with that, the words of the 
psalmist: "Commit thy way unto the Lord; 
trust also in him; and he shall bring it to pass. ' ' 
The wonderful responsibility upon the men 
who have organized, who have united in this 
Brotherhood, seems to impress everyone with 
the absolute dependence, the absolute weakness 
of man and the power of God, in the advance- 
ment of this work. 

If our Brotherhood shall rise to the great 
possibilities in the service of the Man of Galilee 
for the men of America, it goes without saying 
that we must realize our dependence on union 
with Christ, in service with Christ, and we 
must rise to the acceptance of the great truth 
of absolute surrender to God's will. We must 
realize there is no strength within us except 
as we have the reflex strength of the Master. 
We must realize that we can do all things when 
he works through us. We must know that he 
uses only empty vessels for his work, vessels 
free from the pollution and sin of the world. 

60 



PITTSBURG CONVENTION 61 

We shall joyfully surrender to his will when 
it becomes a privilege to know that he will 
gladly accept our surrender and will never fail 
us. When we cease to pray selfishly and re- 
joice to pray for the glory of his name, then he 
will open the windows of heaven and pour forth 
blessings. There is unlimited power vested in 
the repose of mind that rests upon absolute 
faith in his living purpose. He said, "I am not 
come to destroy, but to fulfill." The perfect 
trust that his way is always the best way as- 
sures the peace that we are apt always to think 
beyond our reach. We need no better example 
of self-denial than the absolute surrender to the 
Father's will that led Abraham to the altar of 
that awful sacrifice. Was there ever a better 
example of self -crucifixion? Do we need better 
proof of the Father's loving purpose than that 
he permitted the cruel sacrifice of his dearly 
beloved Son that we might have eternal life? 
Absolute surrender to his will will mean also 
facing the fact that all wrongdoers are our foes. 
Christ the meekest, the lowliest, the most sub- 
servient to the Father's will, is the same Christ 
that drove with whipcords the evil-doers from 
the temple. We must surrender absolutely to 
his will that he may work through us the great 
things that are possible to the body of men who 
are and shall be united in our Brotherhood to 
advance his kingdom upon earth. 



POWER FOR SERVICE 

BY JOHN BALCOM SHAW, D.D. 

One of the greatest engineering achievements 
of our age, and, therefore, of any, is the New 
York subway, and yet that extensive and com- 
plicated construction is dependent absolutely 
and momentarily upon a motor plant hidden 
away in the upper part of the city with which 
it has only an unseen and usually forgotten 
connection. Nor is that power house sufficient 
of itself or unto itself. It performs its ap- 
pointed function only so far as it fulfills two 
conditions, maintaining a dual connection with 
what lies entirely apart from itself. The first 
of these connections is with the world of force, 
by which it utilizes the cooperation of human 
labor, the potentiality of the coal and the energy 
of the magnetic currents that are diffused 
through the atmosphere. The other connection 
which is necessary is with the rails that carry 
the generated power out into the system and 
operate the waiting cars. One is an inlet, the 
other takes the power forth. Without the in- 
let there can be no generation of power; with- 
out the outlet that power is valueless and serves 
no practical purpose. 

My brethren, during these last three days, 
with all that has been occurring in this confer- 

62 



PITTSBURG CONVENTION 63 

ence, it seems to me that God has been install- 
ing within the breast of every man here a kind 
of spiritual dynamo, or, if not installing such 
a dynamo, enlarging and repairing the one that 
was already there. The emotions we have felt, 
the thoughts we have been thinking, the im- 
pressions we have received, the resolutions we 
have formed, the ideals which have stood out 
before us and inspired us, have all gone to make 
up a great and blessed experience. But we are 
all perfectly well aware that that experience 
will cool when we leave this convention, and 
result in no profit either to ourselves or to 
others unless there be the meeting of these 
same conditions, the maintenance of a dual con- 
nection, one an inlet into that experience, put- 
ting us into communication with the power of 
God, the other an outlet from that experience, 
expressing itself in real and practical service. 
Of course, all spiritual power is from God, and 
the only way in which you and I can make the 
connection with the source of spiritual power 
is to get into vital touch with him. All sorts 
of wild, and to my mind, unscriptural theories 
are being advanced as to the baptism of the 
Holy Spirit. There are those who lay down an 
intellectual requirement, saying substantially 
that until we better understand the doctrine of 
the Holy Spirit we cannot have the gift of the 
Holy Spirit. Others make that requirement 
emotional. It is the man who cries out the loud- 
est and pleads the longest who gets the out- 



64 THE PRESBYTERIAN BROTHERHOOD 

pouring of the Spirit. Still others make the 
condition volitional. According to them, we 
niust as formally and definitely and specifically 
choose the Holy Spirit by an act of the will as 
in the beginning we chose Jesus Christ to be 
our Saviour and Master. Is it not enough to 
say that the Holy Spirit comes to those, and 
those only, who are in vital touch with God? 
When that vital touch is secured, that Spirit 
flows in as the tide moves in through the unob- 
structed harbor. How may we establish that 
closer and more vital relation with God? 

Our minds, first of all, must be related rightly 
to God. The only thing that rightly relates 
any man's mind to God is faith, simple faith, 
and the simpler the better. We can have no 
right or healthful relation with a human per- 
son where there is distrust of any kind or to 
any degree. If, therefore, I question God's 
word, if I am not sure of his promise to me, 
if I have any doubt whatsoever as to his desire 
and readiness and willingness and ability to 
give me that power, I am building a great 
barrier across the inlet and his power is not 
strong enough to break over or through it. But 
if I am trusting my God simply, quietly and 
fully, the power will flow in of itself. It was 
Macaulay who said, "No man can be a great 
poet who does not first become a child again.' J 
I believe that no man can be a great Christian 
who in the matter of faith does not stay a child. 
The simpler his faith, the larger his power. 



PITTSBURG CONVENTION 65 

So also must our wills be rightly related to 
God. God can never use, much less can he im- 
power an unsurrendered will. It resists him. 
The old saint was right who prayed the prayer, 
' ' Lord, take me and break me and make me. ' ' 
What is a good conductor to magnetism? It is 
the susceptible and responsive metal. What is 
a good conductor to the divine power? It is 
the responsive, surrendered will. ' ' Surrender, ' ' 
says Gladstone, "is not mere resignation. It 
is this: not wanting to alter in any manner 
anything which God has disclosed to be his 
will." Surrender is first submission to the will 
of God. Then participation in the will of God. 
Then cooperation with the will of God. Then 
the exaltation of that will. When you and I 
have actually handed over our wills to God, 
the tide will move in and nothing can hold it 
back. 

Our hearts must be rightly related to God. 
Dr. Adam has intimated that this right relation 
is companionship. It is precisely that. Friend- 
ship with God. Mrs. Browning once asked 
Charles Kingsley the secret of his character, 
and he answered, "I had a friend." Some one 
asked John Knox what was the secret of his 
spiritual power, and he held up his crest, which 
was a heart enveloped by a flame, and across 
the flame the legend, "I burn for thee." I ask 
Samuel Rutherford yonder in that dungeon, 
where he is suffering for Christ's sake, and he 
exclaims, "0 Jesus, every time I think of thee 



66 THE PRESBYTERIAN BROTHERHOOD 

every stone in this place glistens like a dia- 
mond. ' ' I once asked one of the men who spoke 
to ns yesterday with such power, whose very 
spirit fell like a chrism upon his audience, 
"What is the secret of your growing spirit- 
uality I" and he replied, "It is growing in- 
timacy with Christ." Ask Hugh Beaver, that 
son of Pennsylvania, living to be only twenty- 
five years of age and yet leaving his stamp upon 
this state, and indeed upon the whole country, 
as few men who have come to threescore years 
and ten ever did, and he answers : ' ' These last 
weeks of my life Jesus Christ has been so real 
to me and so near to me that I have felt in my 
prayers that I might almost open my eyes and 
look into his very face. ' ! Was it not Thackeray 
who once declared that the giants live apart? 
Spiritual giants always live apart. They know 
the power of solitude because solitude brings 
them into communion with Jesus Christ. 
Arthur Tappan had a room built in the upper 
part of his store in New York City that at noon 
he might spend not less than half an hour with 
his God. William E. Dodge, whose life is still 
a benediction to New York City, although it is 
many years since he passed away, rose an hour 
before his family that he might be apart with 
God, and when a particularly busy day came ex- 
tended rather than lessened his prayer time. 
The first thing which this apartness does is to 
give us power to transmute the grace which 
Christ pours into our hearts, and, transmuting 



PITTSBURG CONVENTION 67 

it, to transmit it to others. But there is some- 
thing more than transmission or transmuta- 
tion; there is the transfiguration of experience 
and the transformation of the life. Touch God 
in this way, make sure the touch is vital and 
close and you will have the power for service. 

Let me try to answer the second question. 
How can the second condition be met? That 
of securing an outlet for the power we have 
received. What are you going to take back to 
your homes from this convention? Will you be 
content to go into your Brotherhood meetings 
and try in a mechanical way to pump up enthu- 
siasm? Will you return to your churches and 
criticise their lukewarmness ? Will you make 
your report of the convention and let it stop at 
that? Your coming here will have been in vain 
if that is all it is to mean. I want to tell you 
what outlets you ought, somehow or other, to 
secure. 

I. The first should be through a better life. 
If you repair a motor plant and you don't get 
more service out of it, your repairing has been 
a failure. If you have been given a new experi- 
ence in this convention and your life is not 
changed for the better, you might better have 
stayed at home. What sort of a life are you 
going to live when you get home? Sweeter? 
Purer? Holier? Surely the energy has been 
given you in vain if this be not a resultant of 
this conference. Dr. Dawson, in his great book, 
"The Empire of Love," tells us that when he 



68 THE PRESBYTERIAN BROTHERHOOD 

grew discouraged with his church in London 
and dissatisfied with his own ministry, he went 
apart and asked God what was the matter. 
Finally the answer came so distinctly that it 
seemed the vocal utterance of Jesus of Galilee: 
"Go, live the life. Go, live the life." If Jesus 
Christ has said anything to my soul in these 
hours it has been that. A prelate in England 
said to one of his fellows : "I wish I had Henry 
Martyn's power," and his brother prelate an- 
swered, "When you live Henry Martyn's life 
you will have Henry Martyn's power." 

my brethren of the ministry, sitting here 
before me and sharing my emotions, when our 
men say of us what Pitnum of Durham said of 
his old vicar, "Every time I shake hands with 
the man I feel that he is filled with the Holy 
Ghost," — and when our people say of us what 
the parishioner of Robert Murray McCheyne 
said of him: "I used to come to church early 
that I might see the saint climb into the pulpit ; 
the very sight of him was a benediction," — 
men of the laity, that outnumber the 
clergy in the conference, when people back in 
your homes testify of you what Henry Clay 
Trumbull's daughter said of Henry F. Durant, 
1 l I love to have that man come to our home ; 
invite him often; he never comes but what I 
feel that Jesus is more real and more attractive 
to me than before," — and when they can say of 
you what that simple-hearted little girl, as you 
remember, said of Robert Falconer, "I don't 



PITTSBURG CONVENTION 69 

know who it is, but it seems to me he must be 
Jesus Christ," — then shall we be giving the 
outlet to our experience that will transmute the 
power of God and transmit it to the. lives of 
those about us. 

II. Let me say, in the second place, that the 
outlet of our experience at this conference 
should also be a ministry of beneficence. Did 
you ever hear a finer description of Jesus Christ 
than that of the old Scotch woman who said, 
"God had but one Son and he made him a min- 
ister " ! If we are going to be the sons of God, 
we, too, must be the ministers of love. Some 
of you who are not ordained to the ministry are 
better able to exercise the ministry of love, per- 
haps, than those of us who are. How much of 
such ministering is there? Was that working- 
man right who said to me: "When I am in 
trouble I do not go to the church or to church 
members. They will patronize me; they will 
humiliate me. They will hand me out, perhaps, 
some small gift, but it will be so niggardly and 
so hesitatingly done that I should feel the 
smaller for taking it. No, I would go to my 
lodge and treatment quite the opposite of that 
they would give me." I fear it is truer than 
otherwise. It must not be true of us any longer. 
Sympathy, that has been one of the notes of this 
conference. Don't sentimentalize about it. Go 
home to be more thoughtful of the loved ones. 
Go home to be more neighborly in the com- 
munity. Go home to have a word of cheer for 



70 THE PRESBYTERIAN BROTHERHOOD 

the disconsolate and the lonely. Go home and 
speak to the boys and girls on the street and 
be to all a purveyor of sunshine and kindness. 
I think one of the finest things that was ever 
written is these lines from the pen of an Ameri- 
can poet: 

The hour is coming when the walls of this the present church 
Shall melt away, and in its stead shall rise a noble church, 
Whose covenant word shall be the deeds of love. 
Not "Credo" then, u Amo" shall be the password through its 

gates. 
Man shall not ask his brother any more, "Believest thou?" 

but "Lovest thou?" 
And all shall answer at God's altar, "Lord, I love." 
For Hope may anchor, Faith may steer, 
But Love, great Love alone is captain of the soul. 

I wish that they could say of us what the old 
Scotch divine said of John Howe at his funeral: 
"He was a mighty lover of God and man." 

III. Will you let me suggest the third of these 
outlets that we must give to this convention? 
It is personal evangelism. It is the men of the 
church who must win the men of the world. 
This is the testimony of our greatest evangel- 
ists. The mother or the woman Sunday-school 
teacher may win the growing boy, but, when he 
comes to maturity, it is ordinarily only a man 
that can win him. How much more of this work 
are you going to do because of this convention? 
Everywhere we hear personal work talked 
about. But I have to say, and I speak out of a 
broad knowledge of the church, I think there 
is less of this work done to-day than there was 
five years ago. Now and then a man in one of 



PITTSBURG CONVENTION 71 

our Brotherhoods will come up to his minister, 
as did a young man in a western church re- 
cently, and say: "Can you give me a list of 
young men who have lately come to the city? 
I would like to go out and try to win them while 
they are yet in the tender and susceptible period 
of their life here." Once in a while there is a 
man like that fellow from the Chicago lodging- 
house district, converted in our church, who 
came to me and said : "Don't expect me but once 
in a while at church. I will be there for com- 
munion, but I will not promise to be in church at 
all on the intervening Sundays. I will spend all 
of my time among those neglected fellows in the 
section of the city from which I was reclaimed. ' ' 
Occasionally there is a young man like that 
student in McCormick Theological Seminary 
who every Sunday night walks up and down 
Michigan Avenue speaking to the men he passes,, 
recommending Jesus to them as the only satis- 
fying Friend and Saviour. And there are some 
young men like that noble fellow of our mem- 
bership who worked every night last summer 
in the red-light district of our city, so great was 
his zeal for souls. But, alas, alas! these men 
are the rarest exceptions. Most men never 
lift a hand, never speak a word, never stir a 
step, never give a look to lead a brother out of 
darkness into Christ's marvelous light. Do you 
wonder you have no power? Do you wonder 
sometimes that the words of testimony freeze 
upon your lips ere you can get them spoken? 



72 THE PRESBYTERIAN BROTHERHOOD 

Do you wonder that you are not the influence 
in the community that you might be? Above 
all, do you wonder that the kingdom of our 
Lord Jesus tarries in its coming? 

General Grant used always to ask when a 
regiment came back from a battle, "How many 
men did you take?" I believe the Captain of 
our salvation is asking every man here to-day, 
"How many men have you taken for me?" 
When you get home, may he press it in upon you, 
calling upon you with the breaking of the dawn 
and bringing home that question with the fall- 
ing of the night, "How many men have you 
taken for me to-day?" 

Henry Martyn once said, "Heaven would not 
be half a heaven if I could not take some one 
with me." How will heaven be robbed of its 
joy if we fail to take some one with us ! 

Some time since I was walking down one of 
our streets when I saw one of our elders ap- 
proaching me with a heavy shadow upon his 
face. Usually he is a man of exceptional opti- 
mism and sunshine, and I called out to him, 
"What is the matter?" "Something terrible 
is the matter," was his quick reply. "I have 
just come from my brother-in-law ? s funeral. 
We were boys together up in the state, married 
sisters and came to the city at about the same 
time to live. Our homes were near together, 
and we saw each other almost daily. I had 
talked with him on everything but personal re : 
ligion, but that I had always avoided. This 



PITTSBURG CONVENTION 73 

morning when I stepped up to his coffin to look 
upon his face my eyes went closed. There he 
lay embowered in flowers, a wreath from the 
President of the United States, another from 
the governor, and other like tributes, for he had 
won distinction in the political world, but 1 
knew he was a lost man and perhaps the blame 
lay heaviest upon me, for I had never sought 
his salvation. ' ' Having said this, he broke into 
tears and added, " Isn't it an awful thing that 
a Christian man can do that way?" and all I 
could do was to echo his word, "Yes, indeed, it 
is awful." 

Men of this convention, after the experience 
of these last three days, are you going home to 
do that way? God forbid! 



PART III 



BROTHERHOOD ACTIVITIES 
REPORT OF THE COUNCIL 

The story of the Brotherhood since the great 
convention at Cincinnati covers a period of fif- 
teen months. Under the authority there con- 
ferred, and believing that a convention in 
November would suffer in the matter of prep- 
aration, if not in actual attendance, from the 
presidential campaign, the Council determined 
that the next national meeting should be held 
in February, and gladly accepted a very cordial 
invitation to Pittsburg, eminent for its Presby- 
terianism and "for all works of Christian love 
and service. The generous labors of the local 
committee in preparation for the convention are 
fully worthy of the noble precedent furnished by 
Indianapolis and Cincinnati. 

It is desirable that some uniform policy be 
adopted as to the season for holding the national 
convention, so that men may become accustomed 
to plan for it, and especially so that synodical, 
presbyterial and local organizations may adjust 
themselves to it and be able to adopt a like 
uniform policy for their smaller conventions. 
There are strong arguments in favor of the late 
winter, when many men are less crowded with 
their regular duties and therefore better able 

77 



78 THE PRESBYTERIAN BROTHERHOOD 

to attend the convention than at other seasons; 
on which account many Young Men's Christian 
Associations and other religious bodies have 
chosen this time for their conventions. There 
are also very strong and, as the Council is some- 
what inclined to think, preponderating reasons 
in favor of November, especially because the 
presbyterial and synodieal meetings in October 
lead up naturally to it, and because the impulse 
derived from the convention has the whole 
winter in which to work itself out. The Council 
will welcome suggestions from the Brotherhood 
upon this as upon the other topics discussed in 
this report. 

SIGNIFICANT EVENTS 

Brotherhood history since the convention of 
1907 has been marked by several important 
events. The election of Dr. Ira Landrith as 
general secretary, which was announced at Cin- 
cinnati, met with enthusiastic response from all 
parts of the country and was more than justified 
by his wise counsel and his inspiring pres- 
entation of the work from the pulpit and plat- 
form, and in the religious press. Eecovering 
from a serious illness, he was engaged in most 
important and successful service for the 
Brotherhood on the Pacific Coast, when an af- 
fliction befell his beloved wife which made it 
necessary a little later for him to withdraw 
from all activity in the field, continuing, how- 
ever, his official relation to the Brotherhood and 



PITTSBURG CONVENTION 79 

his interest in its work and welfare, though de- 
voting the greater part of his time and attention 
to other duties and receiving from the Brother- 
hood only a nominal salary. It is the earnest 
hope and prayer of the Council that in the order- 
ing of Providence Dr. Landrith may soon be 
restored to full activity in a work to which he 
is so peculiarly adapted. 

Even before Dr. Landrith J s partial with- 
drawal it became evident that a strong man was 
needed at headquarters to devise and carry for- 
ward plans for organization and keep the office 
work under close and constant supervision, in 
connection with such field service as circum- 
stances might permit. The Council was most 
grateful for the opportunity of securing for this 
position of associate secretary, Mr. Henry E. 
Rosevear, a loyal Presbyterian, for nineteen 
years state secretary of the Young Men's Chris- 
tian Associations of Kentucky. He entered 
upon his duties July 1, 1908, and has brought 
an invaluable contribution to the organizing and 
supervising force of the Brotherhood. The con- 
vention owes much to his labors as convention 
secretary. 

By direction of the Council national head- 
quarters were opened in Chicago, at first in the 
Young Men's Christian Association Building, 
and later in the Ohio Building at 328 Wabash 
Avenue, where the Brotherhood office is one of 
a group embracing all the general Presbyterian 
agencies centering in Chicago. 



80 THE PRESBYTERIAN BROTHERHOOD 

The General Assembly at Kansas City in May, 
1908, heard with delight the brilliant address of 
Dr. Landrith on "The Brotherhood as a Uni- 
versal Church Helper," in connection with the 
report of the Standing Committee on the 
Brotherhood; and by unanimously adopting 
that report again set the seal of its approval 
upon the Brotherhood work and commended it 
to the prayer and effort and financial support 
of the church. On the first Saturday evening 
of the Assembly a great popular meeting was 
held under the joint auspices of the Evangelis- 
tic Committee and the Brotherhood, at which, 
before an audience of ten thousand, the presi- 
dent of the Council spoke on "The Brother- 
hood and Evangelism, ' ' followed by Dr. J. Wil- 
bur Chapman with an impressive evangelistic 
address. Hereafter, by vote of the Assembly, 
the popular meeting on the first Saturday even- 
ing of the session is to be devoted entirely to 
the interests of the Brotherhood. 

The Council has undertaken the publication 
of a quarterly magazine known as i i The Presby- 
terian Brotherhood." The first issue appeared 
before the General Assembly in May; the sec- 
ond early in October; the third December 1, 
and the fourth just in advance of this conven- 
tion. This publication has already become a 
valuable means of spreading suggestions and 
experiences through the ranks of the Brother- 
hoods, and of stimulating and informing those 
who are planning to organize. The issues thus 



PITTSBURG CONVENTION 81 

far published have been received with cordial 
approval, and the enterprise invites the coopera- 
tion of Brotherhood men in every line of serv- 
ice. The expense of publication has been a 
heavy burden on the treasury of the Council, 
which must be lightened by a large increase in 
subscription receipts. The price has been fixed 
at a very low figure, but one which will cover 
the actual expense if a paid circulation of three 
to four thousand copies can be attained. No 
considerable income, if any, from advertising 
can be expected, and this emphasizes the neces- 
sity for a larger subscription list. 

In addition to the magazine the Council has 
continued the publication of pamphlets with 
plans of organization and suggested constitu- 
tions; also the membership, identification and 
transfer cards and prayer circle leaflets ap- 
proved by the Cincinnati convention. For gen- 
erous and unfailing support in several of the 
church papers the Council desires to express its 
sincere appreciation. 

GROWTH AND ORGANIZATION 

The year's growth has been steady though 
not sensational. The number of affiliated or- 
ganizations now on our roll is 700, with a re- 
ported membership of 36,190. In addition to 
these something like 700 are understood to be 
in existence but not affiliated. The Council 
covets the fellowship and support of these or- 



82 THE PRESBYTERIAN BROTHERHOOD 

ganizations, and the opportunity of helping 
them with inspiration and suggestion in their 
work. 

The larger movement of the year has con- 
cerned itself with synodical and presbyterial or- 
ganization, to which the associate secretary has 
given much study and far-seeing leadership. 
Successful synodical conventions have been held 
and organizations effected in New Jersey, Okla- 
homa and Illinois; a number of other synods 
are working rapidly toward the same end. Pres- 
byterial Brotherhoods have been successfully 
organized in Pittsburg, Chester and Chicago 
presbyteries. Not less than twenty-two synods 
and one hundred and seventy-eight presbyteries 
have appointed standing committees on the 
Brotherhood, and a very large number have 
assigned important parts of their regular ses- 
sions to the consideration of Brotherhood work. 

Experience confirms the opinion long enter- 
tained by the Council that Brotherhood effi- 
ciency can best be promoted by the thorough 
development of these synodical and presbyterial 
organizations. It is impossible for the national 
body to touch the local units as closely and help- 
fully as may be done by an organization in a 
smaller territory with easier access and a bet- 
ter knowledge of local conditions and needs. 
The policy of the Council is and will be to de- 
velop as rapidly as possible a complete and 
articulated system of Brotherhood organiza- 
tions in every synod and presbytery and to de- 



PITTSBURG CONVENTION 83 

volve upon these the responsibility for Brother- 
hood work in their respective territories as fast 
as they are able to assume it. The sooner the 
Council can thus turn over the details of its 
local work to the smaller territorial bodies the 
better it will be pleased and the more efficiently 
the work will be done. 

This does not mean that the National Council 
is likely soon, or ever, to become superfluous. 
The process of synodical and presbyterial or- 
ganization has barely commenced, and for some 
years to come the national headquarters will of 
necessity carry a large part of the burden of 
local supervision. Even when the system shall 
be completed the national body will still be es- 
sential as a coordinating and unifying force, a 
center of inspiration and promotion, and a clear- 
ing house of suggestion and experience, furnish- 
ing through its employed and expert workers, 
its acquaintance with and hold upon speakers 
and organizers in all parts of the country, its 
broadly conceived publications, its mighty con- 
ventions and its wide national point of view, 
what the synodical and presbyterial organiza- 
tions in the nature of the case will be unable 
to supply. 

FINANCE 

In this connection the financial support of the 
Council is a matter of vital importance and a 
source of deep solicitude. The expenses of the 
first year were small and were easily met by 



84 THE PRESBYTERIAN BROTHERHOOD 

voluntary contributions. In connection with the 
appointment of the general secretary in 1907, 
and at his suggestion, provision was made for 
the greater part of the estimated budget of the 
following two years at an annual expenditure of 
twelve thousand five hundred dollars. The 
amount was not fully completed owing to the 
panic of 1907, and the pledges made at Cincin- 
nati, even without allowance for the inevitable 
shrinkage, left a considerable deficiency, a part 
of which has been relieved by the voluntary sur- 
render of nearly all of the general secretary's 
salary since his retirement from field work. 
Subscriptions at the convention will be neces- 
sary to provide for the remainder of the cur- 
rent year. 

But much the larger part of the amount thus 
far provided has come from a very small num- 
ber of men, who felt that the enterprise ought 
to have a fair trial and who, therefore, contrib- 
uted larger amounts than it would be possible, 
or desirable, for them to continue indefinitely in 
the future. Some of these larger subscriptions 
will of necessity be reduced and some perhaps 
discontinued altogether at the close of the cur- 
rent year. It is essential, therefore, that a sys- 
tematic basis be found for financial support. 
With the strictest economy the Council be- 
lieves it impossible to carry on its work effi- 
ciently for less than twelve thousand dollars 
per annum, covering secretarial salaries, office 
rent, clerical assistance, traveling (necessarily 



PITTSBURG CONVENTION 85 

heavy), stationery, printing, postage, cost of 
magazine publication and convention expense. 
Any smaller amount can only support a crippled 
and relatively ineffective work. A summary of 
the treasurer's report (in which most of the 
expenditures represent only a fraction of the 
year) will throw light on this point. 

RECEIPTS 

Balance Brought Over $234.95 

Cash Collections at Cincinnati 143.65 

Individual Subscriptions 8,567.00 

Subscriptions from Brotherhoods and Brotherhood Day 

Collections 190.00 

Magazine Subscription Eeceipts 295.34 

$9,430.94 

Expenditures 

Salaries $4,500.00 

Traveling Expenses of Secretaries and Council 998.35 

Kent and Office Expenses r . 1,220.74 

Printing and Stationery 863.08 

Magazine 520.60 

Cincinnati Convention 901.84 

$9,004.61 

The plan of synodical and presbyterial or- 
ganization contains a suggestion that the local 
societies collect a membership fee and pay over 
a certain percentage to each of the larger bodies 
to which the local society stands related. This 
plan, supplemented by individual gifts, will 
probably work out a successful result when the 
process of organization has gone far enough. 
But for the present reliance must be placed 
upon voluntary contributions to the Council 



86 THE PRESBYTERIAN BROTHERHOOD 

from the local Brotherhoods, most of which are 
and for some time to come will be unconnected 
with presbyterial or synodical organizations, 
and upon gifts from individuals solicited and 
promoted by the local organizations as a matter 
of loyalty to the national body. Presbyterial 
and synodical Brotherhoods, as they are estab- 
lished, will doubtless include in their budgets a 
regular appropriation for the national work. 
Special suggestions on this subject may be made 
hereafter by the Council and a loyal and prayer- 
ful response to the present and any future ap- 
peal is most earnestly desired. 

COUNCIL MEMBERSHIP 

The terms of office of the following members 
of the Council expire with this convention, and 
their successors are to be elected: John Willis 
Baer, Wm. R. Farrand, Edward D. Ibbotson, W. 
M. Lanning, George H. Stone, A. R. Taylor and 
Frederick A. Wallis. A vacancy will also be 
created by the regretted resignation of Mr. John 
L. Severance, due to the demands made upon his 
time by other church responsibilities. 

ACTIVITIES AND METHODS 

So much for history and machinery. The all 
important question remains, what results the 
Brotherhood is accomplishing and what it aims 
and hopes to accomplish for the church and the 
kingdom. 



PITTSBUKG CONVENTION 87 

The key words of Brotherhood activity are 
contained in Article II of the Constitution: as 
to its character, organized; as to its agents, 
masculine; as to its spirit, Christian; as to its 
place and connection, in and through the church ; 
as to its scope and method, universal, limited 
only by loyalty to Jesus Christ. 

The flexibility of method, which was adopted 
as a foundation principle, contains a possibility 
of danger in the loss of concentration of pur- 
pose and the frittering away of energy while 
men are "busy here and there.' ' It should be 
understood that the inclusion of all forms of 
activity under the national constitution does not 
imply the desirability of equal variety in the 
work of the local units. In the great majority 
of cases local organizations ought to concentrate 
upon some one well-defined form of service and 
pursue it with intensity. Other activities will 
not fail to develop as incident to this main pur- 
pose, and may even go far beyond it; as one 
organization, formed some years ago to pro- 
mote the Sunday-evening service, has gradually 
become the center of a system of Bible classes, 
an annual series of lectures and entertainments, 
a church house and a group of clubs for street 
boys. But such a process will always require 
time, and will be broader and more permanent 
in proportion as the primary purpose is defi- 
nitely conceived and firmly kept in view. 

The flexible method has also a certain disad- 
vantage in failing to provide any single con- 



88 THE PRESBYTERIAN BROTHERHOOD 

crete thing to which new organizations may be 
pointed, and in which they may enlist themselves 
with a kind of mechanical enthusiasm without 
the necessity of careful study and thought. A 
simple, prescribed, uniform objective would 
make the formation of Brotherhoods easier, and 
their membership more numerous for a time; 
but unless all experience is at fault Brother- 
hoods organized on this basis would speedily 
fall into a rut of formality and would gradually 
lose enthusiasm and numbers alike. 

Allowing for all drawbacks, our method has 
the immeasurable advantage of permitting and 
encouraging each organization to develop in its 
own way. The question that oftenest comes to 
headquarters is, "What shall our Brotherhood 
do?" The primary answer always is, "Do 
whatever you can do best, in view of local cir- 
cumstances, opportunities and conditions, so 
long as it ties men to the church for service in 
the name and for the sake of Christ, our Mas- 
ter." Various activities that have been success- 
fully tried elsewhere may be suggested for study 
and experiment, but the Lord has appointed to 
every society its own work, and a true Presby- 
terian Brotherhood will not be satisfied until it 
has at least endeavored to find that particular 
work and do it. 

The experience of the past two years has con- 
firmed some early impressions, and has opened 
up avenues of usefulness in some directions that 
had not been foreseen. 



PITTSBURG CONVENTION 89 

It seems increasingly clear that in a majority 
of cases the men's Bible class is the easiest line 
of work to start, and if earnestly pursued the 
most effective in its results. Its very nature 
keeps it connected with the church; it is con- 
cerned with the material of Christian faith and 
life; it lends itself to the cultivation of fellow- 
ship and to personal evangelism ; its weapon is 
the sword of the Spirit; it is one of the few 
things that seem always worth while. The chief 
difficulty about it is that of securing competent 
leaders; by reason of which the burden often 
falls upon the overburdened shoulders of the 
pastor. A few years of Brotherhood Bible class 
work ought to see in every organization laymen 
growing into fitness for this service. The 
Brotherhood of the Presbytery of Pittsburg has 
furnished an inspiring suggestion by founding 
and carrying on through an entire winter a large 
and successful normal training class for Bible 
class leaders under the instruction of an eminent 
scholar and teacher. 

The Brotherhood is becoming an increasing 
force in the regular services of many churches, 
providing ushers, distributing invitations, wel- 
coming strangers, arranging musical features, 
taking charge of one Sunday-evening service a 
month, or in some cases of one midweek prayer 
meeting a month, and in a variety of ways 
toning up the attendance and spirit of the con- 
gregation. Interesting reports have been re- 
ceived of Brotherhoods virtually sustaining the 



90 THE PRESBYTERIAN BROTHERHOOD 

life of their church during a vacancy in the pas- 
torate; and of at least one case where the 
Brotherhood has underwritten the entire annual 
budget of church expenses, and another where 
it has initiated a movement and raised the neces- 
sary funds for a new manse. 

In a larger field one presbyterial Brotherhood 
has underwritten the salary of a presbyterial 
evangelist whose labors, though directed by the 
presbytery and addressed to the general inter- 
ests of the church, nevertheless react in blessing 
upon the Brotherhoods themselves. 

Social lines have been followed by nearly all 
the Brotherhoods, sometimes as their primary 
purpose and much oftener as incidental to more 
serious business. Perhaps the most usual form 
is a monthly supper, generally combined with 
business or an address by a local or visiting 
speaker ; but the diverse conditions of city, town 
and country call for great variety of adaptation. 
The danger is always present of losing the 
spiritual purpose which alone can make such 
social efforts worth while — not that it should 
always be obtruded, but that it must furnish 
the motive power, if social effort is not to evap- 
orate in a mere meaningless ' ' good time. ' f More 
than one recent attempt to form a Brotherhood 
has found its path barred by the specter of a 
dead " men's club," given over in its lifetime 
to the "doctrine of fried chicken." 

One of the best correctives of superficiality in 
social work is the cultivation of genuine fellow- 



PITTSBURG CONVENTION 91 

ship and helpfulness. Many Brotherhoods have 
found a large field for service in boarding houses 
and among strangers and newcomers in cities. 
Fraternal care for those out of health or em- 
ployment has often proved a blessing to him 
who gives and him who takes. A moderate de- 
mand for the membership, identification and 
transfer cards has continued throughout the 
year. 

The responsibility of men for the welfare of 
boys has taken hold upon a number of Brother- 
hoods, and the question, "Am I my younger 
brother's keeper?" has found an affirmative 
answer in the hearts of men who have rejoiced 
in the privilege of befriending, advising and in- 
spiring individual boys, frequently those who 
have passed through the juvenile court. The 
Brotherhood in a large city church has lately 
resolved to make this one of its primary activi- 
ties. "Inasmuch as ye have done it unto one 
of the least of these my brethren, ye have done 
it unto me." 

Civic activity has engaged attention and 
brought striking success in many Brotherhoods. 
One interesting example is furnished by the 
Brotherhood of a church in a flourishing manu- 
facturing city of twenty-five thousand whose 
monthly meetings have been chiefly devoted to 
the broad and careful study of questions of 
local government — the sources and distribution 
of taxes; the various styles of pavement, with 
their relative advantages and disadvantages; 



92 THE PRESBYTEBIAN BROTHERHOOD 

the cleaning up of streets and improvement of 
waste spaces, leading out into large plans for a 
general and permanent beautifieation of the 
city, in which not only adults but school chil- 
dren have been enlisted. Several valuable pub- 
lications have resulted, all bearing the imprint 
of the Brotherhood, which is probably to-day 
the greatest power for civic righteousness and 
good government in that city. In another 
smaller city the Brotherhood devoted the month 
before the late presidential election to stirring 
up the voters, not in the interest of either party, 
but from the point of view of their duty as citi- 
zens, with the result that a much larger per- 
centage of voters, and especially of the more 
respectable voters, went to the polls than in any 
previous election for many years. 

The cultivation of the prayer spirit naturally 
appeals to a smaller number of elect souls and 
admits of little public recognition. The prayer 
circle leaflets which were presented at the Cin- 
cinnati convention have been circulated in con- 
siderable quantities during the year, and there 
is reason to believe that they have deeply af- 
fected the lives of those whom they have touched, 
and through their prayers have brought blessing 
upon many pastors and congregations. 

Of personal evangelistic effort the reports 
are meager, partly perhaps because such work, 
like the prayer spirit, does not lend itself to 
tabulation or express itself in statistics. But it 
is to be feared that the "winning of men to 



PITTSBURG CONVENTION 93 

Christ and his church," which stands first in 
our official list of Brotherhood aims, has been 
allowed to fall into a less conspicuous place. 

Have the Brotherhoods, or has the Brother- 
hood movement, proved an aid to pastors and 
sessions in their church work, or, as was feared 
by some, only another machine for the pastor to 
keep in motion? If the latter has anywhere 
been the case the fact has not come to the knowl- 
edge of the Council; pastors so far as heard 
from are unanimous and apparently most cor- 
dial in expressing their sense of the value of 
the Brotherhood as an agency for enlisting men 
in church service, giving system and direction 
to their efforts, and sharing and lightening the 
pastor's labors. 

AIMS AND OBJECTIVES 

It remains to mention some special objectives 
for the nearer and for the longer future, some 
local, others of wider scope and import, none 
of them probably to be fully realized within the 
coming year, but all to be brought at least to a 
beginning and kept steadily in view. 

(1) The foregoing review has suggested a 
number of points that need not be further dwelt 
upon; financial help, subscriptions to the mag- 
azine, spiritual sociability, elder-brother work, 
prayer and more earnest personal evangelism. 
"Whereto we have already attained, let us walk 
by the same rule, let us mind the same thing." 



94 THE PRESBYTERIAN BROTHERHOOD 

Every Brotherhood that has done one thing suc- 
cessfully owes it to itself and to the cause to 
keep on doing it and to develop it to higher suc- 
cess; always watching whether the things al- 
ready attained may become a guidepost point- 
ing to new paths of enterprise and achievement. 

(2) Personal effort to increase church at- 
tendance. So simple and obvious a field for 
Brotherhood activity ought not to be so much 
neglected. The great Episcopal Brotherhood of 
St. Andrew has for its only rule of service the 
endeavor each week to bring at least one man 
under the influence of the preached gospel. 
With all our varied enterprises this should not 
be allowed to fall into the background. 

(3) Junior work, not only by older men for 
boys, but the organization of the boys them- 
selves for service in the name of Christ. The 
problem of Junior Brotherhoods has already 
engaged the attention of the Council and must 
be dealt with at an early day. Some such 
Brotherhoods have already been organized on 
lines of their own. 

(4) The development of masculine Christian- 
ity in the home. There if anywhere a Brother- 
hood man ought to be conspicuous for his loyalty 
to Christ. There as nowhere else can a Brother- 
hood man recommend the church and its Master 
to those who are to he the Brotherhood men of 
to-morrow. Out of such home influence will 
grow a largely increased appreciation of the 
Christian ministry and the attraction to it of 



PITTSBURG CONVENTION 95 

many young men whose life work has not yet 
been finally chosen. From such homes we may 
confidently expect to see hereafter a glorious 
army of young men, brought up through boy- 
hood in an atmosphere of devotion to Christ 
and the church, who shall esteem it the highest 
privilege to proclaim the unsearchable riches to 
a waiting world. 

(5) A great educational work lies at our door 
in the training of Bible class leaders, hereto- 
fore referred to ; in the preparation of men for 
intelligent service in the offices of the church; 
in the diffusion of knowledge as to the history 
and meaning of our own church polity and gov- 
ernment, and the points of essential unity with 
other branches of the church of Christ; in the 
promotion of acquaintance with the great agen- 
cies and enterprises of the church, and of the 
personal and financial support which waits (and 
too often waits in vain) upon adequate knowl- 
edge. 

(6) Very urgent, too, is the call for education 
on the questions of social duty which are more 
and more clamoring for attention, and with 
which the church must deal unless she is con- 
tent to be pushed aside and stranded while the 
rushing current of social progress advances. 
Commercial integrity, industrial peace, improved 
conditions of life and labor, the protection of 
childhood and womanhood, the overthrow of in- 
temperance, white slavery and every form of 
public vice, the assimilation of the immigrant, 



96 THE PRESBYTERIAN BROTHERHOOD 

pure elections, honest administration — the 
church ought to lead in every one of these Christ- 
like and heroic enterprises. If she" is to do so, 
her Brotherhood men must first become intelli- 
gent about them, and then earnest in pursuit 
of them, and be in vital touch with the agencies 
and organizations that are trying to promote 
them, many of which might appropriately be 
direct agencies of the church itself, and may yet 
come to be so if the men of the church will rise 
to their responsibility and privilege. A strik- 
ing and fruitful suggestion is furnished by the 
Brotherhood of a great city church in another 
denomination, which requires each of its mem- 
bers to be actively connected with some chari- 
table, philanthropic or civic organization out- 
side the church, and aims as far as possible to be 
represented by at least one of its members in 
every such organization in the city. 

(7) For the sake of the relation of the 
Brotherhood to the larger life of the church, 
the strongest effort must be directed toward the 
completion of the system of synodical and pres- 
byterial organization, for which the Council is 
prepared to furnish detailed suggestions with 
such personal help as circumstances permit. 
The division of the whole country into three or 
four large departments, with some measure of 
independent self-government, is a matter for 
early and careful consideration. 

(8) While awaiting the formation of these 
larger groups, much can be done by the inter- 



PITTSBURG CONVENTION 97 

change of fellowship and experience, not only 
through the national headquarters, but directly 
between neighboring Brotherhoods. Group con- 
ventions, larger or smaller, should be frequent, 
especially in territory remote from the national 
convention cities. For example, a series of con- 
ventions at four or five points on or near the 
Pacific Coast, and at two or three points in the 
Southwest, or in the Rocky Mountain region and 
perhaps one east of Pittsburg, could not fail to 
set in motion forces that would be felt through- 
out these respective territories. Aside from the 
larger and more formal conventions, there is 
an attractive field for service in volunteer depu- 
tation work, in which men from one Brother- 
hood shall visit another in a neighboring place, 
to exchange fellowship and ideas, to break up 
the sense of isolation, to encourage the halting 
and hesitant, and show how obstacles can be 
overcome, and as a thoughtful Brotherhood man 
has put it, ' i to start a warm circulation of Pres- 
byterian blood." In at least one synod a good 
custom prevails by which a whole Brotherhood 
spends an evening with the men of a neighbor- 
ing church for the purpose of organization. 

(9) Our constitutional catalogue of Brother- 
hood aims, opening with the winning of men to 
Christ, closes with the extension of his kingdom 
at home and abroad. We shall fail in our local 
and personal work unless we conceive it broadly 
in its bearing upon the world-wide mission of the 
church. No Brotherhood man can afford to be 



98 THE PRESBYTERIAN BROTHERHOOD 

ignorant or indifferent in the face of the mighty 
movements of the nations, the unprecedented op- 
portunities for world evangelism which, if not 
grasped now, may soon slip beyond our reach, 
the fascinating appeal of this world programme 
for Christ to manly and heroic men, and the 
growing sense of the unity of the kingdom in all 
lands and in every communion. 

INTER-BROTHERHOOD RELATION 

The last report of the Council alluded to in- 
terest in Brotherhood work among the men of 
other branches of the church. Fellowship in 
this service has received a notable impulse 
through the informal Inter-Brotherhood Con- 
ference held in January, 1908, upon the initi- 
ative of the Brotherhood of St. Andrew of the 
Episcopal Church, and attended by representa- 
tives of six denominational and one interdenomi- 
national Brotherhood organizations. Though 
wholly unofficial — perhaps because wholly un- 
official — this conference was full of refreshment 
and inspiration to those who were privileged to 
take part in it, not only by reason of the ques- 
tions discussed but especially because of the 
sense of fraternity in the work of the Master. 
The most tangible result was the movement for 
a world-wide week of prayer for men, which 
was approved officially by nearly all of the 
churches and personally by leaders in every de- 
nomination. An encouraging beginning of this 



PITTSBURG CONVENTION 99 

observance was made during the first week of 
December in many parts of the home and for- 
eign lands. A second informal conference is 
appointed to meet in Pittsburg at the close of 
the Brotherhood convention, when further plans 
for larger cooperation in men's work for Christ 
will be considered. 

Within our own family in the faith, a Pan- 
Presbyterian Brotherhood convention is one of 
the dreams which may become a reality in the 
not distant future. 

Grateful for the privilege of laboring in this 
high and hopeful service, conscious of insuffi- 
ciency, relying upon the help of the Head of 
the church and upon the sympathy and coopera- 
tion of all men whose hearts beat with loyalty 
to our Captain, the Council moves out into an- 
other year confident in the assurance that he 
who has begun a good work will perform it until 
the day of Jesus Christ. 

By order of the Executive Committee. 

Charles S. Holt, President. 



OPEN PARLIAMENT ON BKOTHERHOOD 
METHODS 

CONDUCTED BY ANDREW STEVENSON, OF 
CHICAGO, ILL. 

Mr. Stevenson. — There is in this audience 
this morning a very dear friend of mine from 
Chicago, who came to this convention only after 
a great deal of persuasion. He said he could 
hardly spare the time from business. Yester- 
day afternoon, at the close of the communion 
service, I turned to him and said, "When are 
you going back to Chicago ?" He said. "I am 
not going back as long as this continues." The 
place in which I find myself this moment is not 
an easy one, for everyone realizes, as do I, the 
responsibility of carrying on this convention in 
the spirit it now is in, and in enlarging upon it 
and bringing down for practical use the mighty, 
helpful thoughts we have been receiving. I 
hope everyone will recognize a personal respon- 
sibility for doing that very thing that we may 
make every suggestion fruitful and helpful. 
Shall we not think carefully of the things we 
are to say that everyone who has come here, 
many for the first time, may go back to their 
local churches inspired and helped as they never 
have been before? 

Before the general discussion is opened I 
100 



PITTSBURG CONVENTION 101 

want to say just a personal word concerning 
one of the things which has helped me perhaps 
more than anything else in connection with my 
small part of the work among Presbyterian men, 
namely, the element of appreciation in service. 
I am confident that many of our strong men 
have been brought out and developed because 
some one has expressed a word of appreciation 
for the effort they are making, and I want to 
give my personal testimony to-day of apprecia- 
tion for the unselfish service of those men who 
have stood faithfully by the work of the Brother- 
hood from the outset and have made it what it 
is to-day. I wish I could mention in detail my 
estimate of the members of the National Council. 
I wish I could give you to-day, men of the Pres- 
byterian Church, some conception of what I 
know of the individual lives and the real in- 
fluence of men not only prominent in life of the 
church, but as captains of industry, in the com- 
mercial life of the country, how they are bring- 
ing down to practical usage the principles laid 
down by our Lord and Master, Jesus Christ. 

In Boston last week I believe I had the great- 
est experience of my religious life. Never be- 
fore did I realize how a city like Boston could 
be moved by the preaching of the gospel. It is 
something that has meant much to me to see 
the city of Boston stirred from one end to the 
other in such a remarkable way, for I found in 
making my way from the South Station to the 
hotel that all classes of men, street-sweepers, 



102 , THE PRESBYTERIAN BROTHERHOOD 

newsboys, window-washers, conductors and 
clerks, as well as the cultured and so-called busi- 
ness and social leaders, were all deeply inter- 
ested in, and for the most part, closely in touch 
with, the revival. When I heard testimony from 
Unitarians and Christian Science advocates of 
what the campaign, that evangelistic stirring, 
was doing for Boston, I got down on my knees 
and thanked God for the evangelistic committee 
of our church, and that it was made possible, 
humanly speaking, by the unselfish devotion and 
generosity of Mr. John H. Converse, the presi- 
dent of the Baldwin Locomotive "Works of 
Philadelphia, and I know he will forgive me for 
making this reference this morning. 

I wish we might have in mind this morning 
the fact that there are gathered together here 
not only men whose names are known from one 
end of the world to the other, but men who are 
practically unknown but who are serving the 
Master just as faithfully. It is my earnest hope 
that when we open the discussion and get down 
to the practical workings of the Brotherhood, 
these men will feel just as free, if not freer, to 
express their thoughts as those who are most 
accustomed to appear before the public as lead- 
ers of great enterprises and movements. 

To open the parliament, I have asked one or 
two to start the discussion, and then we have 
planned to hear from a great many briefly. We 
have forty-nine minutes left and let us be much 
in prayer that we may gain from this particular 



PITTSBURG CONVENTION 103 

session the practical things that our own local 
Brotherhoods will expect to hear from us. Let 
us hear first from one of those men, a faithful 
member of the Council to whom I have referred, 
Mr. James D. Husted, of Denver, a member 
of the Brotherhood Bible class and an elder 
in the Central Presbyterian Church. We want 
to hear how this organization is getting hold 
of and enlisting the men in the studv of the 
Bible. 

Mr. James D. Husted. — In the Central Pres- 
byterian Church, led by our great preacher, Dr. 
Coyle, we have a Brotherhood Bible class which 
grew out of the organization of the Brotherhood. 
The Brotherhood had its first meeting at the 
time of the organization of the National Brother- 
hood, and immediately the Brotherhood cen- 
tered and concentrated the efforts of the organi- 
zation on the Bible class for men. Dr. Coyle 
leads that class, which meets at ten o 'clock every 
Sunday morning preceding the regular morn- 
ing service. He uses his strength so unre- 
servedly that we wondered how he could stand 
the strain of conducting the Bible class. He 
says it is the most inspiring and helpful effort 
of his life. 

We have had an attendance as large as four 
hundred and fifty men, though it is usually from 
two hundred and fifty to two hundred and 
seventy-five. Often more than forty per cent of 
these men come from outside of the church mem- 



104 THE PRESBYTERIAN BROTHERHOOD 

bership and attendants. In connection Tyith the 
lesson, Dr. Coyle has all the time made his talks 
strongly evangelistic. He urgently appeals for 
personal power and faith in the Lord Jesus 
Christ. Members come into the church con- 
stantly from this Bible class. Last communion 
five men of influence and power in the commu- 
nity, who had never identified themselves with a 
church, joined the Central Presbyterian Church. 
Many go into other churches. The membership 
of the class is made up of the strongest profes- 
sional and business life of the city. There is a 
force in it. It has done the church itself a won- 
derful amount of good, and in that great church, 
where we shall entertain the General Assembly 
in May, more than two hundred will soon join, 
and many will come from the two sources from 
which we draw our membership, namely, the 
Sunday school and the Brotherhood. This has 
not been accomplished merely by the strength of 
the leader, great as it is. But members are con- 
stantly at work, issuing invitations to meetings 
and interesting events, such as banquets where 
we have speakers of prominence. The newly 
elected United States senator was there to ad- 
dress the Bible class and the former governor 
of the state spoke on the character of Lincoln 
and reenforced his talk with a direct personal 
appeal for Christian living. 

Mr. Stevenson. — Do you follow the Inter- 
national lessons, Mr. Husted? 



PITTSBURG CONVENTION 105 

Mb. Htjsted. — Only part of the time last 
quarter. This quarter we are doing so. 

Mb. Stevenson. — The next one we will hear 
from is the pastor of the church of Chicago 
which has the oldest organized Bible class in 
our city. Dr. Martin D. Hardin of the Third 
Presbyterian Church, which has a Bible class, 
taught by the same lady for thirty years. 

Dr. Hardin. — I have been given three min- 
utes to tell something of the outside work of the 
men in my church. A group of men from this 
class goes every Sunday to the Eye and Ear 
Hospital and holds there a religious service, 
doing personal work with various patients. 
Another group goes to the City Hospital, holds 
such a service there, and another group of these 
men goes to the mission for men in the city, and 
another group of them preaches sometimes on 
the streets. I doubt if there is ever a Sunday 
that some of these men do not come in with a re- 
port of one. two. three, four or five men who have 
given their hearts to Christ from their service 
the day preceding. They are carrying personal 
work and preaching Christ to men somewhere 
every Sunday and sometimes twice a week in 
one of these missions. We have had unite with 
the church, in the last year, five men who. a year 
ago. were literally in the gutter. To-day these 
men are all in good positions and they are all 
earnest workers for Jesus Christ. Thev were 



106 THE PRESBYTERIAN BROTHERHOOD 

men who were brought literally out of the gut- 
ter through the work of these men representing 
the class. 

Mr. Stevenson. — For fear some may get the 
idea that we are hearing from only the large 
cities, I have asked my pastor, the Rev. Henry 
Hepburn, to tell of the work of the Brotherhood 
in the First Presbyterian Church of Aurora, 111., 
of which church he was the pastor until coming 
to the Buena Memorial Church in Chicago, re- 
cently. 

Mr. Hepburn. — I come to speak of the leader- 
less church. It was with a great deal of anxiety 
I laid down the pastorate of the Aurora church. 
And it was felt that the burden of responsibility 
must rest on the Brotherhood. They began their 
plan of organization. Plans were made to carry 
on the work. This was about the middle of 
December, and for two months the church has 
been under the leadership of the session, but 
backed by a hundred men, not a pastor. The 
Bible class has been maintained and the morning 
prayer meeting before the service; while the 
Brotherhood has had charge of the evening 
service once a month. Fifty or sixty were pres- 
ent at each service as helpers and leaders and to 
care for the work. On New Year's afternoon 
forty men met and called on all the members 
of the church, presenting each member with a 
New Year's card and invitation to come to 



PITTSBURG CONVENTION 107 

church. So, though without a pastor for two 
months, the church has more than maintained 
its services, and the congregations are larger 
now than when I left, and I presume it is a good 
thing for them I did. (Laughter. Applause.) 



Mr. Stevenson. — I will ask Dr. John Balcom 
Shaw, pastor of the Second Presbyterian 
Church, Chicago, to tell of the splendid work the 
men are doing in his down-town church. 

Dr. Shaw. — There are three men from our 
church in this convention who I think could bet- 
ter speak of this work than myself. One is my 
colleague, Manley Albright, and one is Mr. Holt, 
your president, who is our leader, and unlike so 
many men prominent with the church, in touch 
with all practical work and, I think, the chief 
inspiration in all our work. The third is Mr. 
William 0. LaMonte, chairman of our Census 
Committee. That committee within eight 
months secured the names and addresses of 
nearly a thousand young men and got in touch 
with them. This work is the one we are conduct- 
ing in our church house as headquarters. On 
Thursday evening that house is open for a gen- 
eral reception for young men. Every day it 
is open for young men as they will come in. We 
have a game room, a reading room, a pool room 
— I don't hesitate to speak of that in a Presby- 
terian pulpit — a growing club for boys which 



108 THE PRESBYTERIAN BROTHERHOOD 

is bringing results in a most gratifying way. A 
teacher in the public schools told me she had 
begun to feel the effect of those clubs upon the 
boys in attendance in her classes. The chief 
thing, however, is what is known as the ' i Pleas- 
ant Sunday Afternoon." At five o'clock every 
Sunday afternoon, our rooms are thrown open 
and the young men stream in. We have good 
music, which costs us nothing, as the best talent 
is always willing to sing under these circum- 
stances. Then we have fifteen or twenty min- 
utes ' talk — civic, ethical or spiritual ; afterwards 
a light supper. I wish you could come in and 
see these young men and go with them to the 
Christian Endeavor meeting, or to the evening 
services, and see the hold we are getting on the 
young men in the boarding houses, and among 
the medical students, art students and veteri- 
nary students; I am sure you would feel that 
there is something you could do in your own 
homes. I feel our great mistake and sin is sen- 
timent. We talk about these things and applaud 
them but we are not doing them. Let us be 
done with theory and begin the practice. (Ap- 
plause.) 

Mr. Stevenson. — That makes me think of 
what Dr. Landrith said to me yesterday when we 
were deciding on the conduct of these two open 
parliaments. He said, "You take the practi- 
cal side, and to-morrow I will take up some 
theories I have thought of." 



PITTSBURG CONVENTION 109 

I was anxious that we hear from Sterling, 111. 
Their Brotherhood goes to the hotels on Satur- 
day night, and places a personal invitation in the 
box of every traveling man registered there, and 
I am informed that practically every Sunday 
since the plan has been used, one or more show 
up at their Brotherhood meetings. In Clarinda, 
Iowa, a church that had very few men until the 
time of the organization has now a Brother- 
hood Bible class of sixty or seventy, and the 
whole religious atmosphere of this city of five 
thousand has been charged with a new feel- 
ing. The Brotherhood of the DuPage church 
(thirty miles west of Chicago), six miles 
from any railroad, has a good attendance; 
every man almost has to drive or walk from 
one to six miles. There were thirty-nine 
men present when I attended one of their 
meetings. 

Let us devote the rest of our time to answer- 
ing questions and practical discussions. Sup- 
posing, first of all, we spend five minutes in 
seeing if any of these talks have developed any 
questions in your minds which you would like 
to ask now. 

Mr. Bell, Dubois, Pa. — I want to ask whether 
the Bible classes have large influence in increas- 
ing the attendance at the church services. I 
don't know whether I gather rightly or not that 
many went away after the Bible class and did 
not stay until the service. 



110 THE PRESBYTERIAN BROTHERHOOD 

Mr. Husted. — Not the most of them, because 
about forty per cent come from outside of the 
church, but a large increase in attendance has 
been noticed and there is a growing attendance 
on the part of men outside of the church. 

Mr. Bell. — We have centered around Sunday ; 
what is the influence upon the Wednesday-even- 
ing meeting? 

Mr. Husted. — Our attendance at Wednesday 
evening is greater by thirty per cent than it was 
a year ago, and traceable, largely, to the work 
of the Brotherhood. 

Mr. A. B. T. Moore, Cedar Rapids, Iowa. — 
For nearly two years it has been an unusual con- 
dition when there were not more men, or at 
least as many men, as women at the Wednes- 
day evening meetings. In our own city, where 
there are five English-speaking Presbyterian 
churches, we have in our own church not less 
than three hundred members, a men's club of 
one hundred and twenty-five to one hundred and 
thirty, and a large Bible class. Last Friday 
evening we had a speaker from Chicago to speak 
upon Bible study. We have a federation of 
men's clubs in Cedar Bapids, made up of some 
dozen men's clubs of the different churches. 
Two weeks ago last Sunday, after a newspaper 
campaign of some weeks against the Sun- 
day theaters, which I had the honor to conduct, 



PITTSBUKG CONVENTION 111 

after the pastors preached against the Sunday 
theater, we gathered a meeting of fully three 
thousand people protesting against the Sunday 
theater, petitioning our legislature and our state 
governor to stop it. (Applause.) That was the 
beginning of the fight. We are going to eradi- 
cate it. (Applause.) 

Me. Meacham, Ripley, Ohio. — We have heard 
from the big men and the big churches. Let 
us hear from some little men and little churches 
like mine. I represent a church of two hundred 
and ten members. We are struggling with a 
little Brotherhood class. We have twenty-five 
or thirty men in it. Our largest attendance has 
been twenty, and we are conducting it under the 
name of "The Brotherhood Bible Class.' 9 We 
send invitations, and we talk, and we telephone 
and we preach and we discuss. We have sixty 
or seventy men who ought to be interested, and 
it is a grave question how to get them interested 
and keep them interested. I would like to hear 
from men who are fixed as I am, what you are 
doing in order to make a success. I want to 
know, so I can go back and do something more 
than I ever have done before. 

Mr. W. E. Couffek, Central Park Presbyte- 
rian Church, Chicago. — We have, since our or- 
ganization on September 15, enrolled forty-five 
Brotherhoods, fifteen more will affiliate with us 
in the near future. We have ninety-nine 



112 THE PRESBYTERIAN BROTHERHOOD 

churches in the Chicago Presbytery. We pro- 
pose to have a Brotherhood in each one of these 
churches before the next annual meeting. The 
men in our churches are becoming more enthu- 
siastic on the subject, entering more into the 
spirit of the Brotherhood union, and believe 
absolutely that every Presbyterian church 
should have a Brotherhood. They have men 
enough to officer and organize a Brotherhood. 
In fact one live layman, with the cooperation of 
his pastor, can do so. I speak from experience. 
I am the president of the Central Park Presby- 
terian Brotherhood. We organized with eleven 
members. We now have one hundred and three. 
This we have secured by personal work. Every 
successful Brotherhood should be founded on 
the corner stone of personal work, and love and 
prayer. We have ninety-five per cent of the 
men of our congregation. In fact, I only know 
of five men who are not in; one is deaf, one is 
infirm. The way is to meet the man at his home 
and have a heart-to-heart talk, and if you don't 
get him the first time, keep after him. I called 
seven times on one man before I got him. 

Mr. W. L. Barrett, Blairsville, Pa. (Popu- 
lation, five thousand.) — Our Brotherhood grew 
out of the inspiration received at the Indianapo- 
lis Convention; we have forty-seven members 
and are two years old. We have more than a 
hundred in our Brotherhood, and at the last 
meeting we had ninety. In a small town we don 't 



PITTSBURG CONVENTION 113 

need brilliant men nor large means, but an inter- 
est in our fellow-men and love for Christ. Our 
Brotherhood has had a study class, and a night 
school for foreigners to which we have con- 
tributed teachers. We have been instrumental 
in securing a federated movement on the part 
of the men of the town, and hold meetings at the 
opera house attended by six hundred or seven 
hundred men. Our Brotherhood is working for 
personal evangelization and I argue the great- 
est thing is that they have secured fifteen 
men in that Brotherhood, who accepted Christ 
as their personal Saviour and united with the 
church. 

Mr. J. T. Bates, Keedsburg, Wis. (Popula- 
tion, four thousand.) — Our Brotherhood was or- 
ganized in 1907 with only a small membership. 
We were without a minister for some time, and 
the Brotherhood kept up the meetings. We had 
speakers from other places, had suppers which 
kept us interested, and to-day we have a new 
pastor and he is doing great work and our 
Brotherhood is growing. To interest the peo- 
ple we have topics of general interest to the city 
and have discussions on them outside of church 
work. When we get them there we feed them 
on the bread of eternal life. We have had more 
success in having general topics, such as new 
buildings, sewage and so forth. We had one 
Lincoln meeting conducted by the Brotherhood, 
which called out the largest congregation that we 



114 THE PRESBYTERIAN BROTHERHOOD 

ever had in Beedsburg. At the dedication of 
our little church in one day we raised $10,236.00. 

Mr. ' J. G. 'Donnell, Covington, Ohio. — I 
represent a town of two thousand inhabitants, 
of which I think that man Couffer was formerly 
a resident. The Brotherhood in Covington was 
started because there was no means of gathering 
the men of Covington together. It is a town 
which has no club features, no Y. M. C. A. or 
amusements or attractions for men. Thirteen 
men of the Presbyterian church gathered to- 
gether and formed the first Brotherhood in our 
village about a year ago. At this time we have 
sixty members. The only work that we have 
done is to hold a Sunday-afternoon meeting for 
men every two weeks, getting as a speaker some 
one from our Ohio towns. The meetings have 
averaged more than four hundred men at every 
one of these Sunday-afternoon meetings. As a 
result of this movement in the Presbyterian 
church, a Sunday-school class of three men now 
has an enrollment of twenty-eight men, all of 
whom come from the Brotherhood. The aver- 
age attendance during the year has been 
seventy-five per cent. 

As a further result the Methodist church and 
the Christian church have organized Brother- 
hoods and have consented to share our afternoon 
meetings. Three weeks ago the three Brother- 
hoods met and favored a federation of Brother- 
hoods. We hope in time the Brotherhood may 



PITTSBURG CONVENTION 115 

form a club and reading room and take care of 
the boys. 

Mr. William A. Atkinson, Belle Center, Ohio. 
(Population, one thousand.) — I wish the presi- 
dent of our local Brotherhood might speak in 
my stead. We were organized just at the time 
of the Indianapolis Convention, and I believe 
for our church the Brotherhood has done won- 
derful things. We have a membership of be- 
tween fifty and sixty. Our church, which has a 
membership of a little less than three hundred, 
has been doing something for home missions and 
something for foreign missions. The president 
of our Brotherhood thought we had been doing 
too little, and through the Brotherhood there has 
been developed a spirit of benevolence such as 
that church has never known before. For the 
two years and more we have doubled every year 
our home missionary offering. The year of 1907 
we increased our foreign mission offering more 
than fivefold, and the men of the church are 
largely responsible. Our method would not be 
followed in other places perhaps. After the 
morning services the president of our Brother- 
hood arose and stated what we should do as a 
church, and personal pledges from members 
were received that morning. In all the work 
of the church, I believe our Brotherhood is doing 
a masterful work. 

Mr. J. D. Harley, Seven Mile, Ohio. (Popu- 
lation, seven hundred.) — The Presbyterian 



116 THE PRESBYTERIAN BROTHERHOOD 

church in the town of Seven Mile, Ohio, is with- 
out a pastor. The Brotherhood numbers only 
thirteen men, but they have been keeping up 
the interest, and one man I want to tell you about 
is not a member of the church. The Brother- 
hood got after him and got him interested and 
we expect to have him a member of the church 
in a short time. The Brotherhood is studying 
the International Sunday-school lessons, and 
every Sunday afternoon at half-past two the 
church is half filled with men of the neighbor- 
hood who are not otherwise interested in Chris- 
tian work. 

Mr. Stevenson. — I understand the Synod of 
New Jersey and the Brotherhood have been do- 
ing work for pastorless churches. I wish we 
might hear from two who have been doing such 
work. 

Mr. Coar, Marietta, Ohio. — I want to men- 
tion a thing we did for a church without a 
pastor. Our church grew out of a little country 
church. Last summer we took hold of that 
church and supplied services for it. Sixteen 
members of our Brotherhood went out and con- 
ducted that service. Just that kind of work is 
what is going to keep a Brotherhood together, 

Mr. Genung, Newark, N. J. — In Devon Pa., 
where the Brotherhood has for over a year car- 
ried on the work, a Mr. Jefferis told me that 



PITTSBURG CONVENTION 117 

were it not for the Brotherhood, he really be- 
lieved the church would be dead. 

Mr. William Sinclair, Devon, Pa. — I am a 
member of that Brotherhood, and we have had 
no pastor for two years and the service has been 
run by the Brotherhood. We started with 
twelve members. To-day we have a member- 
ship of about twenty-five, I think, and I can say 
that all but one man have quit the use of 
tobacco. We use the International Sunday- 
school lessons, and we study the Bible every 
Sunday morning, and I think it is a great thing. 

Mr. Isaacs, Collingswood, N. J. — It was 
through the work of our Brotherhood we se- 
cured a pastor, and it is by the work of our 
Brotherhood we are helping our pastor. We 
started with a Bible class. We would have two 
or three or four or half-a-dozen men, and now 
we have more men than women in our church. 
We also do other work in helping the poor, send- 
ing coal to those who are destitute and helping 
in the Sunday school. If anything is to be 
done in our church, or if it comes up in the 
women's circle, they say, "Turn it over to the 
Brotherhood, they will attend to it. ' ' 

Mr. Baker, Springfield, Mo. — We are not old 
enough to tell how we do many things. We or- 
ganized, following instructions given by the 
Brotherhood literature. At the first meeting we 



118 THE PRESBYTERIAN BROTHERHOOD 

had twenty-seven men on a rainy Sunday after- 
noon, and we had nobody to address us. We 
spoke our heart-to-heart messages and we found 
that every one of the men had come there after 
having prayed over the matter very earnestly, 
and we decided we would organize. The next 
meeting we had a membership of fifty. We 
have only had three meetings. We are catching 
the spirit that the Brotherhood has. That is the 
proper spirit and the right spirit, and down in 
the Ozarks of Missouri a Brotherhood will exist 
and we hope to have good results for the king- 
dom. 

Mr. Stevenson. — We want to hear from Dr. 
A. R. Taylor, president of the James Millikin 
University of Decatur, who has been elected 
president of the Presbyterian Brotherhood of 
Illinois. Also from Mr. Tatem, who is the presi- 
dent of the Presbyterian Brotherhood of New 
Jersey. 

Dr. Taylor. — Our synod appointed a commit- 
tee. It did more or less work in the effort to 
introduce the work in the various parts of the 
state. You have heard of the great results in 
Chicago and other parts of the state in the way 
of local organizations. Last fall in response to 
the suggestion of the Executive Committee of 
the National Council, our synod proceeded to 
the establishment of a permanent committee on 
the Brotherhood — the first permanent commit- 



PITTSBURG CONVENTION 119 

tee in our history. That committee arranged 
for a convention at Decatur, and that convention 
proved to be an inspiration to the workers 
through the state. We had something like this 
convention. There came from it an inspiration 
which I am certain will result in greater things 
for the State of Illinois. We are in earnest in 
Illinois and we ask the brethren to join us in the 
synodical organization, believing it the best way 
to reach the men. 

Mr. Tatem, New Jersey. — The Brotherhood 
of the Synod of New Jersey held its third an- 
nual convention on Lincoln's Birthday of this 
year. We have held three, and they have been 
helpful and inspiring. The work is carried on 
like the work of a national organization, under 
the charge of an executive council, which con- 
sists of the officers and laymen of each presby- 
tery. We have found the advantage of the 
synodical organization is that the members 
from the individual presbyteries shall keep in 
touch with the work of the respective presby- 
teries, and where they were earnest and enthu- 
siastic the Brotherhood work has made great 
progress. Our conventions have been attended 
by from one hundred and twenty-five to two 
hundred delegates and have been a source of 
much inspiration and help. And at these con- 
ventions the questions which arise are just the 
questions you men are asking now. Tell us 
what you have done and tell us how you did it. 



GREETINGS FROM PITTSBURG 

BY JAMES H. GRAY, PRESIDENT OF THE PITTSBURG 
BROTHERHOOD 

In the Presbytery of Pittsburg there are 
fifty-five Brotherhoods, a goodly sized company 
who have responded to the call which the church 
is making to men through the Brotherhood, and 
who stand ready and willing to render what- 
ever service the church may require of them. 
They are banded together on the King's busi- 
ness under the general direction of a council 
of twenty-one men, five ministers and sixteen 
laymen. It is fitting and proper to introduce 
you to my associate members of this council, 
twenty strong, faithful, consecrated, efficient 
followers of Jesus Christ, who have given them- 
selves without stint to the upbuilding of the 
Brotherhood. Their lives furnish another proof 
that the man who gives himself in the service 
of our Saviour will thereby certainly acquire 
Christlikeness of character. I count it an 
honor to represent these men. In their name 
and also on behalf of the convention committees, 
who have given so generously of their time and 
money to provide for your coming, I most 
heartily and sincerely welcome each one of you 
to this third national convention of our Brother- 
hood, and to the fellowship of the Presbyterian 

120 



PITTSBURG CONVENTION 121 

men of Pittsburg. I assure you the hearts of 
your hosts are warm and true with brotherly 
love for you. 

Above all else the men of Pittsburg are glad 
to enjoy with you the opportunities afforded by 
this convention. They believe the Presbyterian 
Brotherhood is being used, and will be used by 
God to win the men of the church to active and 
enthusiastic participation in the work which 
the church is here to do, and to win the men of 
the church to a real consecration to the service 
of Jesus Christ. As far as men are concerned, 
much of the responsibility for the furtherance 
of this work which is to be done through the 
Brotherhood rests upon us who are here as- 
sembled. Much depends upon what we do with 
our lives after we leave here. We read about 
the disciples of Christ at a time shortly after he 
disappeared from their view on the mountain 
in Palestine. Jesus told them they would re- 
ceive power after the Holy Spirit had come 
upon them. He told them they were to be his 
witnesses. They continued steadfastly in the 
apostles' teaching and in prayer. They were 
all with one accord in one place. They sought 
God, they were willing to be controlled by him. 
The Holy Spirit was given to them. They were 
transformed. They became able to move men to 
become disciples of Jesus Christ. 

The Brotherhood men of Pittsburg believe 
this convention may be the means by which the 
transforming power of the Spirit of God may be 



122 THE PRESBYTERIAN BROTHERHOOD 

communicated to all of us. They have labored 
to bring the convention to pass, that it may be 
such an occasion for each one of us. Their 
prayer for you and themselves is that each one 
of us may go from here, as was said of Stephen, 
full of faith and the Holy Spirit, full of grace 
and power, and as Stephen did, work wonders 
as witnesses of Jesus Christ. 



GREETING FROM THE BROTHERHOOD 
OF ST. ANDREW 

by h. d. w. english, first vice president 

Mr. Chairman and Gentlemen of the 
Brotherhood of the Presbyterian Church: 
— It is a great pleasure to meet with you this 
afternoon and, in the absence of the president 
of the Brotherhood, bring you the kindest and 
most loving and brotherly greetings of the 
Brotherhood of St. Andrew in the United States. 
It is a great pleasure to see so youthful a son 
in Brotherhood work, and yet so strong and 
evidently so hardy. 

In bidding you welcome here this afternoon 
I can do so not only as a national officer of the 
Brotherhood, but as a citizen of Pittsburg, be- 
cause it is my pleasure to be a resident of this 
city, and I want you to know how much we as 
citizens of this great city appreciate your pres- 
ence in our midst, because we feel that that 
sense of brotherhood which we are trying to 
create and make known in this great city will 
be increased, be more firmly established than 
ever, by your work and presence among us. 

Brotherhood? What is it? As brothers in 
Christ we should all work for the spread of the 
kingdom of Christ upon earth, every man, 
whoever he mav be, praying faithfully that he 

123 



124 THE PRESBYTERIAN BROTHERHOOD 

may have the power in his little corner of the 
world to so establish the kingdom there that 
he may have his share in this splendid work 
for Christ. And what dignity it gives each man 
when Jesus Christ does work through him upon 
some other man to bring him into the kingdom 
of Christ. Let me emphasize it, in just the 
minute I have to speak to you, that there is no 
other way whereby you and I can do this 
Brotherhood work as it should be done, except 
through that great avenue which Christ has 
established — the avenue of earnest, heartfelt 
prayer. All service, to be of real value, must be 
the outgrowth of the prayer of the consecrated 
Brotherhood man, taking advantage of this 
avenue which has been established for us, and 
which must be kept clear and clean between 
the Brotherhood man and his God. Without 
that touch, service becomes perfunctory. 

So may I say to you, as a representative of 
the Brotherhood of St. Andrew, that which you 
must know, and that which you must believe as 
well as we, that any real service that you want 
to make complete for him must first begin with 
your influence upon your brother man through 
persistent prayer to God. I take it that that is 
the foundation of your Brotherhood as well as 
the Brotherhood I represent — seeking that other 
man, as Andrew went out to seek and find his 
brother. 

I hope your deliberations here will be blest 
in a great uplifting of your Brotherhood so that 



PITTSBURG CONVENTION 125 

it may be the more strongly established in the 
United States, and that finally we may come to 
a closer union. I understand that all the 
Brotherhoods in the United States, meeting at 
the end of this convention in conference, will 
try to bring about such a union, out of which 
will grow a better understanding of our com- 
mon purpose, so that this splendid body of men, 
with many other splendid bodies of men of other 
faiths, may go out as one army of the living 
Christ, fighting against the common enemy, lift- 
ing up the common brotherhood of man as ex- 
emplified in Christ Jesus, and bringing men 
everywhere within the kingdom and sway of 
our common Lord and Master. 

I thank you, gentlemen, this afternoon, for 
giving me the privilege of coming and giving 
you the greeting of the Brotherhood of St. 
Andrew, not only in Pittsburg, but also in the 
United States, and give you a hearty welcome 
and wish you all good. 



GREETINGS FROM THE BROTHERHOOD 
OF ANDREW AND PHILIP 

BY JOSEPH W. POWELL, FIELD WORKER 

Mr. Chairman and Brethren : — I went home 
from here at noon to-day with the words of Dr. 
Adam ringing in my ears. I could not get away 
from what he said, and when I came back this 
afternoon, I was deeply gratified to learn that 
he was to be on the programme again. After 
he got through speaking I felt that I would like 
to go into some quiet place and meditate, and 
think of that great and helpful address that he 
gave us. 

I am going away from this convention better 
able to win men for Christ, for having heard 
that splendid address. 

When Brother Rosevear said to me a short 
time ago, "If Dr. Pheley does not come in, I wish 
you would speak for the Brotherhood of Andrew 
and Philip," I said, "How long will you give 
me?" "Three minutes," and I almost fainted. 
(Laughter.) Some of you men who know me 
best, know that I want three hours for an ad- 
dress. (Laughter.) 

I jotted down a few things in my notebook 
and found I could read them over in three 
minutes. 

God certainly calls us to-day to be willing 
126 



PITTSBURG CONVENTION 127 

to die in finding men and leading them to 
Christ. 

We should have a divine passion for souls and 
remember that we are saved to save others. 

We should remember that power with God 
precedes power with man, and keep in close 
touch with the Almighty. 

A Christian disciple is one who has practiced 
winning souls for Christ until, unconsciously, 
this has become a dispositional quality and habit 
of his life. Christ taught that the value of 
a soul transcends the value of a world. To 
win men for God was the all-consuming purpose 
of his life. 

The heir to an old castle stood one morning 
looking at the portraits of thirty of his ances- 
tors. In that hour he felt that his fathers had 
made vows for him. He fell on his knees and 
pledged God that he would never unsheath his 
sword in the name of selfishness but only in de- 
fense of God's poor and needy. 

We are children of great, heroic fathers, 
chiefly the sons of God, and as they look down 
upon us from celestial spaces, may we not feel 
that they make vows for us, to serve, with re- 
newed zeal, God and humanity? 

Brethren, let us make this movement the Cru- 
sade of the twentieth century. A great moral 
tide is arising in the church and it is difficult to 
comprehend the magnitude of this work. It is 
stirring the conscience of men in all walks of 
life. The Brotherhood movement is now arrest- 



128 THE PRESBYTERIAN BROTHERHOOD 

ing the attention of every religions man of every 
denomination. 

The layman is coming to the front. Men of 
business activity and executive ability are now 
taking hold of the affairs of the Master. 

When the men of the church cast aside lethargy 
and selfishness, when every man lays himself 
upon the altar with talents and money and goes 
forth in his name to conquer, soon will be heard 
the shout of victory. 

The kingdoms of this world have become the 
kingdoms of our Lord and his Christ. 

A hundred years ago we had seven millions 
of people in the United States. Now we have 
ninety-seven millions. In the year 2000 we will 
have three hundred or four hundred millions. 
What kind of people will they be? Will the 
church lead the nation? That depends greatly 
upon our energies and work now and how we 
meet our obligations and responsibilities. 

I believe signs denoting unmeasured possibili- 
ties for the Brotherhood are clear. Mighty 
works will be accomplished through one strong, 
vigorous organization in the church. Not to 
displace any other society, but logically to meet 
a great need. Simply to organize men to save 
men. 

God speaks, and in the fullness of time, just 
in the nick of time, not before or after, God the 
Father dropped into the furrows of humanity 
his Son to grow forever. 

Listen, now is the accepted time, it is ours to 



PITTSBURG CONVENTION 129 

see and to do. We are to have lively times 
ahead of us the next fifty years. There will be 
a new type of layman and preacher and neither 
will be afraid to overturn the tables that defile 
the temple. 

In speaking of St. Gaudens, the great sculp- 
tor who recently died, a young artist, gazing 
upon the equestrian statue of General Sherman, 
said, "His greatness was in the way he brought 
out big things. ' ' The business of our Lord was 
always to do great things and one of the great- 
est things the church has brought out is this 
Brotherhood. 

After going through the country from state 
to state until I have visited every state and ter- 
ritory in this Brotherhood work, organizing 
chapters everywhere and speaking in the 
churches and at ministerial associations, and 
year after year begging the pastors and promi- 
nent laymen everywhere to organize the men 
for aggressive work among men for the saving 
of men, many times discouraged that there was 
not more interest taken in the work, it was with 
great personal gratification that I went into the 
great convention at Cincinnati last year and, 
looking upon the fourteen hundred men, from 
every part of the Union, bowed in prayer, I said 
to my wife, who was with me : ' ' See, it is com- 
ing! They are coming a hundred thousand 
strong. Look at these splendid men, coming 
from their places of business, in the interest of 
this movement. We will soon have all the lay- 



130 THE PRESBYTERIAN BROTHERHOOD 

men in the United States in one great federa- 
tion." 

We are going to take this world for Christ, 
and I thank God for the Presbyterian Brother- 
hood and for all Brotherhoods. 

I am sorry that Dr. Pheley is not here, but I 
bring to you from the hundreds of chapters of 
the Brotherhood of Andrew and Philip, in 
twenty-four denominations, greetings and sym- 
pathy, and I am sure that every chapter would 
back me up in saying we are willing to stand 
shoulder to shoulder with you, to pray with you, 
to work with you and to cooperate with you in 
spreading this cause of Christ around the world. 

The Brotherhood of Andrew and Philip brings 
to you its heartiest greetings. 



GREETINGS FROM THE MEN'S MOVE- 
MENT IN THE UNITED PRESBY- 
TERIAN CHURCH 

by john a. crawford, general secretary 

Mr. Chairman and Members of the Presby- 
terian Brotherhood : — As the representative 
of the men's movement of the United Presby- 
terian Church, and on behalf of the hundreds of 
organized men in our congregations, I take 
pleasure in extending to this great Presbyterian 
Brotherhood our heartiest greetings, felicita- 
tions and best wishes, as you meet in this great 
city, the stronghold of Presbyterian faith, a 
center of power and influence religiously as well 
as industrially. 

It is a pleasure to welcome you here, especially 
owing to the fact that it is but three years last 
week since our own great men's movement was 
organized in this same church in which you now 
sit. Furthermore, it is a pleasure and privilege 
for us to say that while the Brotherhood of St. 
Andrew and the Brotherhood of Andrew and 
Philip exceed us in age, as local or individ- 
ual societies, yet the United Presbyterian 
Church was the first evangelical denomination 
of this land to call its laymen to meet together, 
as it did three years ago, and more than 
one thousand men met here and launched 

131 



132 THE PRESBYTERIAN BROTHERHOOD 

our men's movement as a denominational or- 
ganization. 

We welcome you as organized Christian 
brothers, united with us in a common service for 
humanity, serving the same Master and pro- 
moting the same kingdom. We welcome you as 
members of the same great household of Pres- 
byterian faith ; believers in the same truths and 
principles, and holding to the same methods 
of church government and policy. May your 
deliberations and your conferences be guided 
and directed by the Holy Spirit. May you 
be filled with new zeal and inspiration and 
a new spirit of sacrifice and service for the 
future. 

Among all the wonderful movements of the 
past the organized womanhood of the church 
has represented largely the devotional and 
spiritual character of the church ; the organized 
young people have represented the enthusiasm 
of the church, but the newly organized men's 
movement — this Brotherhood of Christian men 
— represents, I believe, the strength of the 
church. If this world is ever won for Jesus 
Christ, it must be done by the men of the church, 
because we have the ability and the money and 
the power to do it. The true Christian Brother- 
hood is, and necessarily must be, characterized 
by a manly, virile type of Christianity; full- 
blooded, vigorous men of Christian spirit and 
principles; men loyal to the truth and to the 
church; men filled with the true spirit of 



PITTSBURG CONVENTION 133 

brotherhood and fellowship; men consecrated 
to Jesus Christ and his service. 

May God bless you, and may you return to 
your homes realizing that the Presbyterian 
Brotherhood means for each a holier life, 
greater activity and better service. Hear the 
words of our Master, "Whosoever will come 
after me, let him deny himself, and take up his 
cross, and follow me." We bid you welcome 
and Godspeed! (Applause.) 



GREETINGS FROM THE BAPTIST 
BROTHERHOOD 

BY REV. FRED. E. MARBLE, PH.D., GENERAL 
SECRETARY 

Mr. Chairman and Brethren : — In behalf of 
the Baptist Brotherhood, I bring you most cor- 
dial greetings. From what I have seen and 
heard since my arrival this morning I am per- 
suaded that anything I might say would be a 
twice-told tale. It would be like the sermonizing 
of an old minister of whom I heard in England 
last summer. When asked how he did it, he re- 
plied, " First I tells 'em what I am going to tell 
'em, second I tells 'em and third I tells 'em what 
I told 'em." (Laughter.) 

As I listened to the report of your General 
Council I said it might just as well have been 
ours, for the same points were emphasized and 
the same plans set forth. As I have listened to 
the calls for prayer and service, I found my- 
self saying, Amen. 

We are doing precisely the same. We stand 
for Bible study. We stand for missions. We 
stand for social betterment. We stand for civic 
righteousness. We stand for lay evangelism. 
We stand for religious education. We stand for 
all of those things that have been mentioned 
here for the uplift and the betterment of our 

134 



PITTSBURG CONVENTION 135 

fellows. We rejoice over the splendid fellow- 
ship in which we find ourselves. 

I represent in my greetings not simply the 
Baptist Brotherhood but the American Federa- 
tion of Men's Church Organizations, a body 
which has been trying for the last eight years to 
bring local men's church organizations into an 
interdenominational federation. 

At our annual meeting in my own church at 
Cambridge next month we shall formulate plans 
to promote the growth of local federations and 
to bring them into sympathetic and helpful touch 
with each other. 

The fact of the business is I am an interde- 
nominational product myself. My mother was 
brought up in the Church of England. I was 
trained in a Presbyterian Sunday school. I was 
converted in a Methodist revival service. I be- 
came a member of a Baptist church. During 
my first year in the theological seminary I 
acted as a stated supply for a Christian church. 
The last two years of my course were spent very 
largely among the Scotch Presbyterian and the 
Dutch Reformed people, and only the other day, 
with gown and prayer book, I found myself in 
a processional in an Episcopal church. I think 
I am qualified to represent the Federation of 
Men's Church Organizations. (Laughter and 
applause. ) 

The ideals of the Baptist Brotherhood are 
three — I can only mention them — Unity, Fra- 
ternity, Ministry. 



136 THE PRESBYTERIAN BROTHERHOOD 

We seek a unity that is more than denomina- 
tional solidarity — a unity of all believers, such 
as the Master prayed for himself. 

We seek a fraternity that throbs and glows 
with the red blood of the kingdom and finds ex- 
pression in a comradeship of such genuine hu- 
man interest and hearty good will as to be at- 
tractive to men without as well as a joy to those 
within. 

We seek a ministry like that of Hobab. You 
remember that when Moses was leading the 
Hebrew people out of Egypt and was passing 
through the wilderness, he said to Hobab, "Come 
thou with us, and we will do thee good. ' ' Hobab 
replied, "I have all the good I want in Midian; 
my home is here, my heart is here and here I am 
content to remain." Then Moses said, "We are 
to encamp in the wilderness, and thou mayest be 
to us instead of eyes;" and Hobab replied, 
"I'm your man." It was the appeal for serv- 
ice, and that is the appeal we are putting out 
to-day, an appeal to which scores and hundreds 
and thousands of men are responding. 

In addition to a sisterhood of graces — faith 
and hope and love — we are coming to have what 
some one has so fittingly described as a Brother- 
hood of powers — strength and courage and 
sacrifice. 

As I sat in the gallery yonder, this morning, 
and looked over the three hundred men who 
were visible from my point of vantage, I counted 
only ten gray-haired men and there were only a 



PITTSBURG CONVENTION 137 

score of others from the top of whose heads I 
could not determine whether their hair was white 
or black. 

What does this mean ? It means that the vigor 
and strength of the young manhood of the church 
is responding to this appeal for service in the 
work of the kingdom. 

I rejoice that it is my great privilege to have 
a part in this wonderful movement, and I bid 
you Godspeed in all the varied activities upon 
which you have entered. 

I cannot, however, take my seat without pay- 
ing a tribute of respect and admiration to that 
splendid Presbyterian evangelist who has been 
leading the movement in Boston for the last four 
weeks. If there was time I could stir your 
hearts with tales of the scenes and incidents of 
those never-to-be-forgotten days. 

Only last Sunday afternoon I was one of 
eight thousand men who listened to a wonder- 
ful appeal from Dr. Chapman, and I saw no 
less than four hundred men of all ages and con- 
ditions leave their seats and gather about the 
platform and upon their knees pledge them- 
selves, with God's help, to begin a Christian 
life. It was not an ethical impulse nor a 
wave of enthusiasm but the mighty power 
of God bringing multitudes to repentance and 
faith. 

The Christian life of the whole region has 
been wonderfully quickened and the face of the 
people turned toward God. We are happy in 



138 THE PRESBYTERIAN BROTHERHOOD 

the consciousness of divine favor and have only 
words of praise and commendation to say with 
regard to the character and leadership of that 
splendid Presbyterian preacher and evangelist, 
Dr. J. Wilbur Chapman. God bless you all. 
(Applause.) 



GREETINGS FROM THE BROTHERHOOD 
OF THE DISCIPLES OF CHRIST 

by rev. p. c. macfarlane, general secretary 

Mr. Chairman and the Presbyterian Men 
of America: — It is with a great deal of pleas- 
ure that I stand here this afternoon just to speak 
to you a word of greeting. I don't know whether 
it was foreordained that I should come or not, 
but I do know that a confluence of two streams 
of Presbyterian history brings me here. As I 
sat at your great communion service yesterday 
afternoon, I reflected that just about a hun- 
dred years ago Thomas Campbell, a Scotch Pres- 
byterian clergyman, made the mistake of in- 
viting some other kinds of Presbyterians to the 
communion service, and his presbytery censured 
him and later he applied to the regular Pres- 
byterian Church for admission and they would 
not admit him, and he went away and wrote the 
declaration and address, and from that docu- 
ment issued the body known in this country to- 
day as the Disciples of Christ. In the beginning 
we had a little bit of a checkered history. After 
groping around we found more light on one 
subject we were studying, and, the Baptist 
Church being at hand, we dived in ; but we did 
not seem to sit well on the Baptist economy some- 
how. Perhaps there was too much of Presby- 
terianism left in us. Anyhow, we emerged 

139 



140 THE PRESBYTERIAN BROTHERHOOD 

very much as Jonah emerged from the whale. 
(Laughter and applause.) Now as I come back 
among you Presbyterians, recognizing the fact 
that Presbyterian leaders inaugurated the move- 
ment to which I am devoted, feeling, as I do, that 
it is one of the best things Presbyterian leaders 
ever did, I come rejoicing in this great fellowship. 

men of America! Christian men of 
America, what mighty things God has for you 
to do ! I have thrilled with the messages de- 
livered here — the emphasis upon the Christ. I 
want to say, what I believe you will feel is the 
highest compliment that may be paid, and that 
is, that from no speaker upon this platform 
would any man who came within the doors have 
learned to what denomination he belonged, or 
anything but that he was a servant of Jesus 
Christ seeking to plant his cross in the hearts 
of men. 

You are leaders in a very distinguished sense 
in the Brotherhood work in America. The eyes 
of America are upon you, are upon the men 
standing upon your platforms who sound forth 
the tocsin of the gospel. I have for you this 
afternoon one word of greeting from our own 
Brotherhood, and that is, Godspeed! May it 
grow and multiply ! May this federation of men 
of Jesus Christ spread until it shall have all 
the men of America, and some day we may make 
a matter of history the slogan of your conven- 
tion, "The Men of America for the Man of 
Galilee. ' ' ( Applause. ) 



GREETINGS FROM THE BROTHERHOOD 
IN THE SOUTHERN PRESBYTE- 
RIAN CHURCH 

BY ROBERT W. DAVIS, GENERAL SUPERINTENDENT 

Mr. Chairman and Brothers: — I have been 
asked to tell you in two minutes a message of 
greeting and I assure you of the great pleas- 
ure it gives me to stand here and look into the 
faces of such a fine body of men all gathered 
for the one purpose — the extension of the king- 
dom. 

I bring you greeting from the men of the 
Presbyterian Brotherhood in the United States, 
and I also want to say that I believe that I rep- 
resent every man in that Southern Presbyterian 
body in bringing this message of Godspeed in 
the great work you are doing — a message of 
love and the assurance of our hearty coopera- 
tion with you — the assurance of our desire to 
be one with you in purpose, plan, in thought and 
in power, as we are one in faith and hope and 
doctrine. 

After hearing the inspiring messages from 
these other representatives may we not get a 
new vision of what might be possible, if we as 
men, hand in hand and shoulder to shoulder, 
would walk out into the towns and solve the 
problems that there confront us, rather than to 
seek the easy paths that lie in the field? 

141 



142 THE PRESBYTERIAN BROTHERHOOD 



I said, ' ' Let me walk in the field ; ' ' 

He said, "Nay, walk in the town. " 
I said, ' i There are no flowers there ; ' ' 

He said, "No flowers, but a crown. " 

I said, "But the skies are black, 
There is nothing but noise and din ; ' ' 

But he wept as he sent me back, 

' l There is more, ' ' he said, * l there is sin. ' ' 

I said, "But the fogs are thick, 

And clouds are veiling the sun. M 
He answered, ' * But souls are sick 

And souls in the night are undone. ' ' 

I said, "I shall miss the light 

And friends will miss me, they say. ' ' 

He answered, "Choose ye to-night 
If I must miss thee, or they. ' y 

I pleaded for time to be given; 

He said, "Is it hard to decide? 
It will not seem hard in heaven 

To have followed the steps of your guide. ' ' 

I cast a look on the fields, 

And then a glance at the town. 
He said, "My child, do you yield; 

Will you leave the flowers for the erown ? ' ' 

Then into his hand went mine, 

And into my heart came he, 
And I walk in light divine, 

The path I feared to see. 

Just the warmest of warm-hearted greetings 
I bring to you — one that can be expressed in the 
one phrase, "God bless you, brothers." 



GREETINGS FROM THE BROTHERHOOD 

OF THE FIRST PRESBYTERIAN 

CHURCH OF PITTSBURG 

BY W. F. DALZELL 

Gentlemen: — It gave me a great deal of 
pleasure to listen to the representatives from 
the different Brotherhood organizations as they 
welcomed you and wished you Godspeed in the 
work, but I think I have about as pleasant a 
duty to perform as anyone in the house, namely, 
as president of the Brotherhood of the First 
Presbyterian Church to extend to you our most 
hearty greetings and a very cordial invitation 
to accept our hospitality for a short time this 
afternoon. 

We have arranged a musical programme con- 
sisting of organ selections, solos and duets, and 
sincerely trust you will all remain. 

While the selections are being rendered on 
the organ you can engage in conversation, but 
during the singing we hope to have quiet, as 
we know you will want to hear the solos and 
duets. 

Refreshments will be served in the basement, 
and as we can accommodate about two hundred 
at a time, we ask that you kindly go out at the 
door at my right and, after you have been 
served, pass out through the convention hall; 

143 



144 THE PRESBYTERIAN BROTHERHOOD 

this will be necessary in order to avoid conges- 
tion. 

We consider it an honor to act as host to such 
a body of men as we have here this afternoon, 
men from nearly every state in the Union who 
are engaged in service for the Master, and we 
most sincerely hope that our fellowship in a so- 
cial way may be the means of creating an en- 
thusiasm that will enable us all the better to 
carry on the work to which we have been called, 
so that at the close of our labors we may hear 
the plaudit, ' ' Well done, . . . enter thou into the 
joy of thy lord." 

You will find the programmes for the enter- 
tainment in your pews ; and we would like you all 
to secure one. 

It will be very easy for you to recognize your 
hosts by the white badges. If you want any- 
thing not on the programme just ask anyone 
who may have the badge and he will do the best 
he can to take care of you. 

We want you to enjoy every moment you are 
with us. 

I thank you and hope that the remainder of 
the afternoon may be spent very pleasantly. 

(Applause.) 



RESPONSE IN BEHALF OF THE DELE- 
GATES 

BY PRESIDENT A. R. TAYLOR, LL.D., DECATUR, ILL. 

I regret extremely that Brother Holt 's cold in 
the head prevents him from speaking the words 
of response. It is no light task to express the 
feeling of obligation which fills our hearts at 
this moment. If I were an author I would ask 
permission to write it. If I were a poet I would 
make an effort to sing it. If I were an artist 
I should try to paint it. If I were a multimil- 
lionaire I would cash it at once and be done with 
it. If I were an orator I would shout it. But, 
simply being an ordinary brother, I must ask 
permission, in common with this great company, 
to feel it. 

Out West a little fellow selling papers was 
shouting at the top of his voice. Some one 
asked him, "How much do you get for your 
papers?" "Two cents." "How much do you 
pay for your papers?" "Two cents." "How 
much of a profit do you make ! " " Nothing, sir. ' ' 
"Why do you sell the papers?" "Oh, simply 
that I may shout all I want to." (Laughter.) 
Now there are some people here who doubtless 
like to do the shouting. There are some who 
enjoy such an occasion because of the fact that 
they have the opportunity of coming together 

145 



146 THE PRESBYTERIAN BROTHERHOOD 

and shouting. But you can readily understand 
by the spirit of this company with which you 
have already become familiar, that it is a com- 
pany of deep feeling and that words indicate 
very poorly the emotions which fill our hearts 
as we are coming together from ocean to ocean 
at this great meeting. 

Many of us have had the pleasure of passing 
through Pittsburg before. Some of us have 
stopped over night. Our chief remembrances 
have been its smoke and grime, its sulphur and 
its whirl of machinery; many of us, indeed, 
who have spoken to our friends about it have 
been particular to mention the sulphur. I don 't 
remember that I have had a single sniff of sul- 
phur this time. I thought yesterday when Mr. 
Holt was sneezing and coughing that he had 
found some, but I do not know where. As I 
have been thinking of your city and of its great 
industries, I am satisfied that we have not ap- 
preciated the fact that right here in the midst 
of all this busy whirl there is such a magnificent 
spirit of Christian fellowship. Never before has 
it been impressed upon our minds so fully and 
so beautifully that this, after all, is the center of 
those three great corners of Presbyterianism in 
America, the United Presbyterian Church, the 
Reformed Church and the particular church 
which we represent. Some years ago I read a 
description of these valleys of industry that 
radiate from Pittsburg, and something was said 
about their appearance in the nighttime; that 



PITTSBURG CONVENTION 147 

they looked like the infernal regions with the lid 
off, and as I rode along afterwards 1 must con- 
cede that I thought the description very graphic. 
Since I have come here, however, I think it is 
more like heaven with the doors thrown wide 
open, for what is heaven but the fellowship of 
kindred souls? 

I am reminded that I must be brief. Per- 
mit me to remind you of the fact that an indi- 
vidual is to be credited not so much for what he 
gives but rather what he has left. " There is 
that scattereth, and yet increaseth," and the 
beauty about this fellowship business is that 
while you are giving to us in such abundance 
we are sure you have far more left than when 
you began to give. We understand, sir, that we 
are the guests of this entire presbytery com- 
posed of one hundred and fifty churches; a 
little more particularly we are the guests of the 
churches of Pittsburg, not only of the Presby- 
terian churches, but the Christian churches as 
a whole, and that at this moment we are to be- 
come the guests of this great First Church. 
Some of us have learned of its spirit and its 
mission, and some of us are being convinced as 
possibly never before that men may conduct 
great industrial enterprises and become great in 
affairs of state and nation and at the same time 
be humble, devoted Christian workers. The 
question of the existence and mission of a down- 
town church is one that is interesting many of 
us in these days. When we discover what this 



148 THE PRESBYTERIAN BROTHERHOOD 

church is doing in bringing sympathetic min- 
istry to the waifs up and down these streets and 
alleys, to these ragged and debauched men who 
are hiding behind the doors and cellarways and 
in the lurking places of sin, and that you are 
searching them out and bringing them here, min- 
istering to their wants and helping them to feel 
that Jesus has died for them, we understand 
more than ever the spirit of the whole Protestant 
and Catholic churches. Surely the Master is at 
work among his people. 

Just one word more and I am done. Sir, in 
giving expression to our gratitude and assur- 
ing you of our response, we would also have 
you know that as we go from these sessions and 
as we scatter to all parts of our country, thou- 
sands of hearts will leave a benediction for 
this First Church and for the noble men and 
women of this city who are here striving with 
might and main for the advancement of the 
kingdom of our Lord and Master. Away out 
yonder on the Pacific, as the ships leave port the 
voyagers call to those on shore, " Aloha, Aloha! 
we love vou, we love you ! " So say we to you, 
" Aloha, Aloha !" 

Dr. Landrith. — It is desirable that a brief 
conference be held by the officers of the National 
Council and the Presbyterial Conference of 
Pittsburg. 

(END OF WEDNESDAY AFTERNOON SESSION) 



OPEN PARLIAMENT ON BROTHER- 
HOOD PROBLEMS 

Dr. Ira Lastdrith. — Fortunately for you the 
time for my talking has been gone five minutes, 
and I am glad of it. I want as many pastors as 
can do so to get on their feet in the next five 
minutes and tell why they like the Brotherhood 
and what their Brotherhoods have done for 
them. Five minutes out of forty-five is about 
the proper proportion of time for us preachers 
to take in this laymen's meeting. If there is 
a pastor here who has a Brotherhood and is 
glad of it, and knows why, and is willing to get 
up and say so, we want to hear from him. 

Among the responses were these: 

My Brotherhood stands back of me in a 
prayer meeting, twenty-five or thirty of them, 
and they raised my salary. 

My Brotherhood raised my salary and helped 
to double the Sunday-night service. 

My Brotherhood gives me an assistant pastor 
in the summer. 

My Brotherhood largely increased the at- 
tendance of the Sunday school, and has helped 
the prayer meeting. 

149 



150 THE PRESBYTERIAN BROTHERHOOD 

My Brotherhood brings the men to church. 
Since last October we have been counting the 
attendance of men and women, and on the aver- 
age, the attendance of men is larger. 

My Brotherhood gave the home missionary 
the first pulpit suit he had had for twenty years. 

Our Brotherhood started the forward move- 
ment in our church which has resulted in the 
support of a pastor and his wife at eleven hun- 
dred dollars a year, and they are undertaking 
the renovating of a room, and are interested in 
the spiritual activity of our church. 

Our Brotherhood undertook the canvass of 
our neighborhood and made in the fall some- 
where between a thousand and fifteen hundred 
calls, and we are gradually gathering in those 
who ought to belong to us. 

Dr. Johnston, of Montreal. — My Brother- 
hood shut up several houses in the city which 
are unfit to exist by calling the attention of the 
public to them, and it supports its own foreign 
missionary in the field. 

My Brotherhood has stood by me for three 
years, singing every Sunday evening. 

Dr. Landrith. — Time's out, but I would like 
every minister in this audience who feels that 



PITTSBURG CONVENTION 151 

his Brotherhood is of tremendous use to him to 
stand up. (Scores stood.) Thank you. We 
will now hear of Bible study and Bible class 
work introduced by Mr. Brown, chairman of the 
Reception Committee of the First Brotherhood 
Convention, Indianapolis. 

Mr. Brown. — I bring you a greeting from the 
Memorial Church and Business Men's Bible 
Class. I wish the churches of the cities would 
call their Bible classes the Business Men's 
Bible Class. We had a hundred men when you 
were in our city, and we are carrying out the 
suggestion of Brother Speer last night, when he 
said, first, to quicken the man to find out what 
to do, and, secondly, to inspire men to do it. 
We now have three hundred men in this class. 
They are divided into ten companies, a captain 
to each company, and each company has its 
work to do. One company has the Christian 
Endeavor, one the prayer meeting, one the civic 
work, one the devotional, one has missions. We 
raised six hundred dollars in our classes and 
are supporting a missionary in China. We have 
one committee on local charities and one on the 
saloon problem, and the committee went out and 
took the remonstrances and we remonstrated 
every saloon out of our ward. (Applause.) We 
have a committee on the sick and destitute, a 
committee on regular attendance at the services, 
one on interdenominational and one on evangel- 
istic work. The church to which the class be- 



152 THE PKESBYTEEIAN BROTHERHOOD 

longs, and the class itself, has one hundred and 
ten tithers in it, and where we used to raise four 
to five thousand dollars, the cash income is now 
fourteen thousand. 

Dr. Laxdrith. — How many other men want 
to say a word about Bible classes? 

Mr. Meacham. — I am very much interested in 
the problem. I want to know about country 
church Brotherhoods, and if I go back and tell 
my people about the great churches they will 
be disappointed; they want to know about the 
little churches. I want to know how to handle a 
Brotherhood in a small town. I have had no 
trouble in uniting organically with the Northern 
Church, but my trouble is getting the northern 
man in the Northern Church to unite with me. 
I have about seventy-five men in my church, 
twenty-five of whom are working, and as I said 
yesterday, the problem is to get them all to work 
together with me. How have some of you done 
this? I don't want to be considered as one who 
looks on the dark side of the question, but if I 
go back without some help for my small Brother- 
hood they will throw me in the Ohio River. 
(Laughter.) 

Dr. Landrith. — Who will help this brother? 
We don't want to lose him by immersion in 
the Ohio River, now that he is organically 
ours. 



PITTSBURG CONVENTION 153 

A Speaker from the Floor. — I will just say 
this to the gentleman. When our Brotherhood 
was organized four years ago I asked our min- 
ister : "What do you want us to do? Tell us so 
we can do it." We put it up to him. "We will 
do anything you say, if we can do it." He said, 
"I want something to take care of the young 
men in this city. " We started a Y. M. C. A., we 
built an eighteen- thousand-dollar gymnasium, 
we have four hundred and fifty members in the 
city of Joliet, 111., consisting of men, women and 
boys and girls, and we have paid eight thousand 
dollars on the gymnasium, and have still ten 
thousand dollars to pay. We turned the prop- 
erty over to the church, which assumed the re- 
sponsibility. The pastor told us what he wanted 
and we started out to do it, and we are doing it. 

I came in contact with one of these small 
churches in a little village where the question 
was one of men attending church. The pastor 
said he was troubled with a number of men who 
brought their wives and children to Sunday 
school but stayed outside under the horse shed 
and talked horse and disturbed the services. I 
told him that the way to get them interested was 
to get a man who understood horse to talk horse 
inside. I talked to these men about the organi- 
zation of a men's club in the church. To-day 
they have an organization, and the men meet 
inside of the church, and they have a constitu- 
tion and by-laws which will be printed in our 
Brotherhood magazine. 



154 THE PRESBYTERIAN BROTHERHOOD 

Chairman Landrith. — Now for personal 
work. Mr. Thomas Harrison is a locomotive 
engineer from Atlanta and is interested in 
evangelistic work. 

Mr. Harrison. — Brothers and Fellow-citizens : 
— If I could only speak as fast as I can run a 
locomotive I would pass out of the building like 
a flash, but the capacity of my vocabulary being 
so limited I will have to use discretion. I can- 
not tell everything I know in a minute. Com- 
ing down to the fundamental principles of char- 
acter in the human being, I found in a peculiar 
way that the Lord has used me wonderfully since 
I was converted. I have been doing personal 
work, and I find from the teachings of the Lord 
Jesus Christ that personal work has been com- 
manded for all mankind. The preachers have 
preached themselves to death and it has had 
nearly no effect. (Laughter.) In the last 
twelve months the individual has been wakened 
to a sense of duty. Preachers have been at it 
for a long time and now the men are getting 
ready for action. Day before yesterday I was 
talking to some fifteen or twenty men on the 
sleeper and the religious subject came up. I 
consider the fastness of time, and try to speak 
to every man I can about the Lord Jesus Christ. 
I think one man was finally converted before we 
got out of that car. The great God above has 
called us to do a specific work, and we have no 
time to fool around with it. We should speak 



PITTSBUKG CONVENTION 155 

to the stranger. I have been doing it ever since 
I became a Christian, and the crowd that I work 
with now does not have to say, "Tom, don't 
cuss any more. ' ' Instead, I call them to prayer. 
I have in my home family prayer three times a 
day. (Applause.) 

Chairman Landrith. — One hates to shut off 
steam in a locomotive working like that. 

Speaker from Baltimore. — We have in our 
city a student problem. One of the members of 
my Brotherhood, who is a professor in a medical 
college, told the students it would be well for 
them in the beginning of the year to select some 
church in the city and look after their religious 
nature and its development. They told him they 
would like to attend his church. Fifty came up 
and three of those men came to the pastor and 
said, "We would like to do something." One 
played the violin, one the clarinet and one had 
a fine voice. My men are in the midst of visit- 
ing the students in their homes. We go up in 
the room, and there will be some bones and some 
books, and sometimes the bones will be hanging 
out of the window because they are a little too 
unsavory for the room. You can have a heart- 
to-heart talk with the men and invite them to 
the Bible class and church, and these men re- 
spond readily to every appeal we make to them. 

I want to bear witness to the effectiveness of 
personal work. God will use anyone who is 



156 THE PRESBYTERIAN BROTHERHOOD 

willing to work. I am not an educated man, I 
left school when I was eleven years old, yet I 
have never gone to a person and brought to 
him the matter of accepting or rejecting Jesus 
Christ without being successful. I have been 
successful in the past five years with one hun- 
dred and sixty to one hundred and seventy. 
Two are in seminaries studying to be ministers, 
and they will preach the gospel after I have gone 
to heaven. Whenever I select a party to go to, 
while I am there my family are on their knees 
praying until I come back, and the Lord hears 
their prayer. Anybody can do that. 

Mr. A. B. T. Moore, Cedar Rapids, Iowa. — 
Going into Chicago Saturday evening a man 
with blue overalls sat in my seat on his way 
home to West Chicago. He was from Nova 
Scotia. His father and mother, I found, were 
praying Christians; they had family worship. 
He had been away from home for years, and is 
the boss of forty men in the service of the 
Northwestern road. In talking with him about 
his soul and the Lord Jesus Christ, he told me, 
after an hour's conversation, that he would ac- 
cept Christ. He was so anxious to get home 
and tell the glad news to his daughter, who is a 
Christian, that he got off and walked five miles 
rather than take the time to go on into Chicago 
and wait there for a train home. 

Mr. Vandermaatest. — In Los Angeles one 
evening I was writing letters late and I wanted 



PITTSBURG CONVENTION 157 

something to eat. As I passed down the street, 
a man said to me : "I have not had anything to 
eat for about three days. Can't yon give me a 
nickel ? " I said : ' ' You must be pretty hungry. 
I will buy your supper to-night. " We walked 
into a restaurant and I ordered this young man 
a supper. After we had got through eating I 
began to talk to him. The theaters were closing 
and people were beginning to come in. He had 
been reared in a Christian home, in a Sunday 
school, but he had drifted down and down until 
he had no hope at all in this world. After I had 
talked with him for three quarters of an hour 
we knelt on the floor and I was successful in 
leading him to Christ. The next day I was 
again in the restaurant and the proprietor said 
to me, "Were you here last night and were you 
not the one talking to the young man over 
there?" I said I was. He said, "Just wait a 
moment. ' ' He invited me into his private office 
and for two hours and a half I had the privilege 
of talking with him. He reminded me that on 
the night before, when his restaurant was 
crowded with people, I was not ashamed to tell 
of my Master, and he added, "I want to know 
the One in whom you trust." 

We number forty. During the period of our 
organization we have organized many other 
Brotherhoods that are taking up this work. 

Chairman Landrith. — Have any of you done 
public evangelistic work? Mission work close 



158 THE PRESBYTERIAN BROTHERHOOD 

to home? What is your Brotherhood doing for 
the neglected classes at home? 

Our Brotherhood supports a home missionary 
in a neighborhood which has been neglected for 
years. 

Chairman Landrith. — Prayer unions. I will 
ask Mr. Hanna for a word. 

Mr. Hugh H. Hanna. — We have an attend- 
ance of between fifteen to twenty men about 
fifteen minutes before service begins every Sun- 
day. There is no particular effort to increase 
the number, but the prayer spirit seems to uplift 
the men so much. Day by day we see the 
growth in our church. 

Our pastor is most responsive and sympa- 
thetic in the work. We see a wonderful growth 
in our church. It was decided that we increase 
our subscriptions fifty per cent for the benefit 
of mission work. 

Chairman Landrith. — How many have 
prayer unions in your church? Hands up. 
(Many responded.) Thank you. 

How many are doing personal work? Hands 
up. (Similar response.) Thank you. 

I will ask you to pray for a people you are 
not praying for, your Jewish neighbors. 



PITTSBURG CONVENTION 159 

Speaker from Newark. — The most powerful 
force is our morning prayer meeting for men. 
We have from fifteen to forty men gathering 
there. The men themselves are growing rapidly ; 
you can see them grow spiritually, and we are 
beginning now to have splendid service from the 
men who are speaking in the midweek service. 
They would never have been able to speak but 
for the prayer union meeting. 

An interesting meeting is held in Carpenter 
Street under the leadership of Mr. Phillips, of 
Pittsburg. They are without a pastor. We 
have a men's prayer meeting at 9:15 and we 
pray for all the meetings during the Sabbath 
day. 

Chairman Landrith. — How about civic re- 
form work in your Brotherhood! In Tennes- 
see, we are as pharisaic as we dare to be. We 
are sorry for states that tolerate saloons. This 
government cannot exist half slave and half 
free. (Laughter.) We may have to have a 
new Missouri Compromise for the benefit of, 
well, say Pennsylvania. (Laughter.) Is there 
anyone here who will tell what his Brotherhood 
does for civics ! 

We have a section called the civic section, 
whose duty it is to study municipal problems. 
It is conducting a strong movement and taking 
a stand against social impurity. 



160 THE PRESBYTERIAN BROTHERHOOD 

Sioux City Brotherhood has as its president 
the alderman-at-large of Sioux City. 

Chairman Landrith. — Ministerial supplies. 
Has your Brotherhood done anything to con- 
tribute young men to the ministry from your 
church? 

I spoke yesterday of young men going out 
from the Third Church. Three men in the last 
year and four in the last two years have en- 
tered the seminary. 

Chairman Landrith. — I have nine things on 
my notes and we have touched only half. 
Country work. I wish we could spend a half 
hour on that. Here we all need help. How 
many of you were born on the farm? (A ma- 
jority responded.) I thought so. Has anybody 
anything to say about a successful country 
Brotherhood, and how you do it? 

We gave a series of lectures on farming with 
great success. 

President George B. Stewart. — I know a 
Brotherhood, or an organization within the 
church answering the same purpose, that con- 
ducted farmers' clubs to great advantage to the 
church and to the community. I know another 
Brotherhood, not so called, but still an organi- 
zation within the church, under good leadership, 
that studied sociology with the pastor. Then 



PITTSBURG CONVENTION 161 

they applied their information to their own 
local problems as they were shown to them in 
the matter of rural improvements and various 
other local conditions that existed in their neigh- 
borhood. I know another Brotherhood in a 
small village that organized a civic club for the 
purpose of beautifying their village, and they 
have made it one of the most beautiful little 
villages in New York State. 

We are erecting a Brotherhood building in a 
small town of two hundred and fifty inhabitants. 
It is the center of a large region of coal and 
coke towns. The purpose is to have a place for 
various meetings, Sunday-school conventions, 
institutes, road conventions, entertainments, 
anything that is for the general uplift or ad- 
vancement of the country community. In the 
basement we shall have gymnasium work, a 
basketball league will hold their games and the 
mining towns will contribute their teams to this 
league, and so, in general, whatever is for the 
physical and the temporal and the spiritual up- 
lift of the community we are engaging in. It 
is in the southwest part of the state, in Fayette 
County. 

Chairman Landrith. — How many are getting 
ready for club rooms or have them? (Several 
responded. ) Sunday-evening services con- 
ducted by Brotherhoods, their character and 
success. 



162 THE PRESBYTERIAN BROTHERHOOD 

Westminster Church has one hundred and 
thirty members, no pastor, and a Brotherhood 
of forty men. They are not worrying about 
not having a pastor and have opened a room in 
a cotton mill where the men conduct a Bible 
class, and they have a prayer circle. 

Chairman Landrith. — Let us hear about the 
Sunday-evening services. 

Dr. J. R. Harris, Pittsburg. — We have a 
social and devotional meeting fifteen minutes 
previous to the service. We think it helps the 
service and creates a spiritual atmosphere. 

Chairman Landrith. — Boys' work. 

Speaker. — There are forty-five boys in our 
club and thirteen members in the band, and they 
do magnificently for boys. The difficulty is to 
get a layman to take charge of the boys. I 
think I have the men, but they think they can- 
not do it. They declare that they are not 
adapted to it, so I have to do it myself. 

Speaker from Cincinnati. — We have a 
Junior Brotherhood of fifty members which we 
conduct with a great deal of success. In our 
boys' Bible study class we have only twenty as 
yet, but we are working along. Out of the fifty- 
six about twenty-five came into the church since 
I became pastor. 



PITTSBURG CONVENTION 163 

Chairman Landrith. — We have with us Mr. 
Alfred R. Kimball, of Brooklyn, treasurer of 
the Church Federation. He is a Presbyterian 
by trade and a Wall Street banker on the side. 
We want to hear from him in conclusion. 

Mr. Kimball. — Brotherhood among Presby- 
terians leads to brotherhood among other 
churches. The movement for national federa- 
tion originated about nine years ago. In the 
beginning we sought to form and promote fed- 
erations in states and localities, but we found 
that federation is like any other movement. We 
had to go back to the heads of the church. This 
resulted in the Inter-Church Conference in New 
York in the fall of 1905. It takes time because 
the great church bodies meet from one to five 
years apart. This brought about a plan which 
went back to the bodies, and last December, 
when we organized the Federal Council of the 
Churches of Christ in America, thirty-nine de- 
nominations united. We aim at systematic co- 
operation, investigating the existing conditions 
and cooperation in the community. Organic 
union may be a worthy ideal, but fellowship in 
service is immediately practical. The federated 
churches of Rhode Island and Massachusetts 
have decided to avoid overlapping and overlook- 
ing. The federated churches of South Dakota 
have worked with a view to correcting their 
social conditions and the notorious divorce laws 
which have been changed. The federated 



164 THE PRESBYTERIAN BROTHERHOOD 

churches of New York City led to the sup- 
port of the state constitution. The federated 
churches of Paterson spoke and the city's bill- 
boards became decent. Federation was impos- 
sible except in localities where some inspired 
leader arose or some great need arose, until 
we had the authority from the heads of the 
churches. Now we have accomplished that and 
the churches are standing back of us. In the 
Brotherhood we have the nucleus of practical 
federation. Help the Federal Council at 81 
Bible House, New York, and we will help you 
all we can. 



THE PRESBYTERIAN BROTHERHOOD 

OF AMERICA: ITS PROGRAMME 

AND OUTLOOK 

BY CHARLES T. THOMPSON, TREASURER OF THE 
NATIONAL COUNCIL 

I am called upon to speak of the progress of 
an organization — or rather of a movement as I 
prefer to call it — which is still in its infancy. 
Less than four years have elapsed since the cry 
came up to our General Assembly from all sec- 
tions of our church that some plan might be 
devised to awaken the men of our church to a 
greater realization of the fact that they had 
an important work to perform in the salvation 
of the world, and that they must hear the call 
of duty and arouse themselves to greater activ- 
ity in the Master's service. For years the 
Christian service of the men of our churches 
generally, so far as outward appearances indi- 
cated, was confined to attendance upon one serv- 
ice on the Sabbath day, while the other work 
of the church was delegated in large part to 
their wives and mothers and sisters, or allowed 
to go unperformed. Men prominent in business 
and social life, who would have felt it a disgrace 
to shirk their fair share of labor and responsi- 
bility in clubs, societies and other organizations 
of which they were members, were sadly neg- 

165 



166 THE PRESBYTERIAN BROTHERHOOD 

lectful of their duties in that highest and best 
of all organizations, the church of Jesus Christ. 
It is no wonder that the cry went up that some 
method must be devised to end such an intoler- 
able condition of affairs. It would be useless to 
revive the discussion as to who first suggested 
the organization of a Presbyterian Brother- 
hood ; several might be named who are entitled 
to great credit for their efforts in this direc- 
tion in the year 1906 and even earlier years. 
But this we do know, that the General Assembly 
of 1906, in response to a demand from Presby- 
terians all over the land, appointed a committee 
to consider the subject, with power to call a con- 
vention of laymen for conference regarding the 
organization of some such movement as this. 
The work of this committee resulted in the call- 
ing of the Indianapolis Convention, at which 
the Presbyterian Brotherhood of America was 
born. I have not the time, nor is it necessary, 
to describe that convention with its enthusiasm 
and inspiration; nor the great Cincinnati Con- 
vention, with an even larger attendance and 
even greater enthusiasm. In this convention, 
filled with a like enthusiasm and with such un- 
mistakable evidences of the Holy Spirit's pres- 
ence and influence, we have reached the high- 
water mark of the Brotherhood movement up 
to the present date. 

But what, we are asked, has been really ac- 
complished by the Brotherhood up to this time? 
We men are in this, as in most of our religious 



PITTSBURG CONVENTION 167 

and secular affairs, too impatient for results. 
It is true of this, as of all other great move- 
ments, that the results cannot be measured by 
what we can see or by the statistics which we 
can gather. Who can measure the influence of 
such gatherings as this and the two previous 
conventions? Think of it. Thousands of men 
gathered from all sections of our land and from 
every calling of life, laying aside their business 
and, often at a great pecuniary sacrifice, com- 
ing together inspired with only these purposes, 
to enjoy more than ever before the presence and 
blessing of the Holy Spirit; to gather new in- 
spiration for the Master's service; and to gain 
a fuller knowledge of the means by which that 
service can be performed. The men who have 
been privileged to attend these conventions have 
received a spiritual uplift which they can never 
lose; and they have carried away with them 
an inspiration which has permeated the entire 
church. But these conventions have touched, 
directly, only a comparatively few of the men 
whom the Brotherhood is designed to reach. 
For that reason the National Council was 
created, that through it all of the men of the 
churches throughout the whole denomination, 
might be reached directly and inspired with en- 
thusiasm for this new awakening to a realiza- 
tion of a Christian's duty. 

It would be impossible for me to enter into 
a discussion of all that has been done, and it 
would be also unnecessary to do so, in view of 



168 THE PRESBYTERIAN BROTHERHOOD 

the comprehensive report of our president. I 
can only suggest, in general terms, some of these 
results. 

Beginning with no treasurer or treasury and 
with the express command of the General As- 
sembly not to call upon it for financial assist- 
ance, it has carried on an efficient work for 
more than two years at an annual cost of ap- 
proximately nine thousand dollars, which has 
been given largely by a few men who believed 
that the movement was of God and that he re- 
quired of them liberal gifts to the Brotherhood 
during its early years. 

Commencing with no members, it has now en- 
rolled seven hundred Brotherhoods, with thirty- 
six thousand members. 

From all quarters the members of the Council 
have received reports of the inspiration that 
has come to the churches, both in the city and 
in the country, from this movement; and you, 
yourselves, have heard similar reports from 
the field given by those who have spoken from 
this pulpit at this convention. 

You have heard of weak churches sustained; 
of pastors' hands upheld; of rescue work for 
the boys; of Bible study increased; of men 
brought to Christ; of strangers welcomed to 
the fellowship of God's people; of the cause of 
civic righteousness advanced; and of many 
other forms of activity along religious and 
moral lines which have been begun or greatly 
enhanced by the work of the Brotherhood. 



PITTSBURG CONVENTION 169 

So much briefly and very incompletely for 
the progress of the Brotherhood. 

Are we satisfied? Not at all. 

Brethren, I believe this movement is of God. 
Were it not that I so thought, I can assure you 
that I would not have consented to assume, in 
connection with it, a new burden of work and 
responsibility which, added to a burden of re- 
ligious work already too heavy for my strength, 
has threatened at times to crush me down. I am 
in it heart and soul and for life ; whether as a 
member of the Council or not, I care not. But 
bear always in mind, brethren, one thing, a very 
important thing, too, and that is that the mem- 
bers of the National Council and their secre- 
taries can do only a very small fraction of the 
work which the Brotherhood should accomplish. 
They can gather information as to what others 
are accomplishing in their Brotherhood organi- 
zations and can pass that information on to you. 
They can make suggestions, give information, 
aid in organization, arrange for conventions and 
can, we trust, through the guidance of the Holy 
Spirit, give you some inspiration for service in 
your respective fields. For these purposes the 
National Council is necessary and should be 
liberally sustained ; but beyond such services as 
these it cannot go. The final responsibility is 
yours, and you must face it. Every church has 
its peculiar problems to be solved, its peculiar 
work to be done. One problem only is common 
to all — how best to bring men to Christ. 



170 THE PRESBYTERIAN BROTHERHOOD 

The members of the Council have been sad- 
dened, and often made righteously indignant, 
over letters received at the Brotherhood head- 
quarters asking them to tell the men of some 
particular church what they should do. What 
to do? Men and brethren, take your business 
common sense and ask the Holy Spirit to sanc- 
tify it ; then, in the light of that sanctified com- 
mon sense, face the conditions and problems of 
your own particular church. If you do, you 
will have no difficulty in discovering what there 
is in your sphere of Christian activity which 
your local Brotherhood can and ought to under- 
take; and your understanding will be enlight- 
ened to see how you can best do it. 

If your pastor is disheartened by apparent 
indifference and lack of sympathy of his peo- 
ple, see that your Brotherhood does everything 
possible to uphold his hands and sustain him in 
his work; if your church members are indif- 
ferent to the call of God 's house, or to the prayer 
service, or are neglectful of the study of God's 
word, you have work clearly indicated for you ; 
is your neighborhood filled with friendless men, 
living in hotels and boarding houses, make a 
home for them and prove to them that the sweet- 
est and also the grandest Brotherhood on earth 
is that of which the Lord Jesus Christ is a mem- 
ber, and win them to personal membership in 
it. No, brethren, it is not the purpose or desire 
of the Council to prescribe for any Brotherhood 
organization any particular form of service; 



PITTSBURG CONVENTION 171 

but the whole purpose of this organization is 
to bring about the time — and God grant that it 
may speedily come — when the exhortation of 
the great apostle will be heeded and obeyed : " I 
beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies 
of God, that ye present your bodies a living sac- 
rifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your 
reasonable service. And be not conformed to 
this world: but be ye transformed by the re- 
newing of your mind, that ye may prove what 
is that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will 
of God. ' ' You know what follows in that mar- 
velous call to duty and service, all together 
working for the advancement of Christ's cause, 
each in his own place; not all using the same 
gift, but gifts differing according to the propor- 
tion of faith, teaching, preaching, ministering, 
holy living and all sweet Christian service in 
the Master's name. 

Brethren, do you ever see visions and dream 
dreams? I thank God that he permits me to 
do so at times. When I get weary and dis- 
couraged in his service — and I sometimes do — I 
believe it is his Holy Spirit who directs my at- 
tention to those inspiring chapters, the eleventh 
and twelfth of Romans and the eleventh and 
twelfth of Hebrews. I learn from them that 
the same service is not expected of every man 
nor of every Brotherhood ; but of all is expected 
service, according to the proportion of faith. 
Brethren, the church of Jesus Christ and its 
individual members have been too long hin- 



172 THE PRESBYTERIAN BROTHERHOOD 

dered by a weight of worldliness, indifference 
and, shall I say it? of ignorance of duty, which 
has sadly impeded their progress. To it comes 
again the call to duty in that marvelous chapter 
in Hebrews. We know from the history of 
those who have gone before and from the lives 
of men around us what can be accomplished by 
weak men who are joined by living faith to 
God. But we ourselves are so weighted down 
by these sins of indifference and ignorance! 
Do you hear that challenge which always comes 
to me like a bugle call from heaven itself, 
" Wherefore seeing we also are compassed about 
with so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay 
aside every weight, and the sin which doth so 
easily beset us, and let us run with patience the 
race which is set before us, looking unto Jesus 
the author and finisher of our faith." My 
visions are of a church and a church member- 
ship obedient to that call; and my dreams are 
of the results which will surely follow from 
such obedience. 

Gentlemen of this convention, again I say this 
Brotherhood Council does not propose to do 
your work, nor can it do it. It can give you 
some useful information, possibly some inspira- 
tion; then you must hear the call of which I 
have just spoken. Look at the religious and 
moral situation in your immediate sphere of 
activity, and the problems thereby suggested; 
apply to those problems your best business 
common sense, having first brought that com- 



PITTSBURG CONVENTION 173 

mon sense to the throne of grace and had it 
enlightened and sanctified by the blessing of the 
Holy Spirit. If you will do this, and I believe 
you will, the outlook reveals the Presbyterian 
Brotherhood of America as a magnificent suc- 
cess, as an agency in conquering this world for 
Christ ; unless you do this the outlook promises 
certain eventual failure of this movement. Will 
you all do your part? God grant it. 



PART IV 



THE MAN FOR THE HOUR IN THE 
CHURCH 

BY ROBERT JOHNSTON, D.D. 

President Holt. — I am sure you have been 
impressed and inspired, as I was, though not 
surprised, by finding that Dr. Finley brought 
his man for the hour around to the test of con- 
secrated personality and applied as the stand- 
ard of that personality the life and character 
of Jesus. The man for the hour in the church, 
as in the state, will be the man who "sees life 
steadily and sees it whole," and knows that 
civic duty is a part of religious duty. There 
is no line of cleavage in the demand that the 
hour makes upon us for consecrated Christian 
character. As at our first great convention at 
Indianapolis we went to Canada and summoned 
to our aid an eminent speaker and writer of that 
Dominion, Ralph Connor; so for the speaker 
of this evening we call from Canada one who 
comes to us with a message of power to which 
we shall listen with joy. Robert Johnston, D.D., 
of Montreal, will address us on "The Man for 
the Hour in the Church. ' 9 

Dr. Johnston. — "The genius of opportu- 
nity," some one has said, "lies in its strategic 
element." It is the moment that imperceptibly 
and yet inevitably stamps with its own impress 

177 



178 THE PRESBYTERIAN BROTHERHOOD 

of success or failure all moments that are to fol- 
low, marking them for splendid fruitage and the 
triumphal way or, with as determining a hand, 
directing them to barrenness and failure. 

That truth finds illustration in every depart- 
men of life and activity with which we are 
familiar. 

Visit any one of the great steel plants of this 
city of Pittsburg. Watch the iron as, cold and 
unyielding, it is thrown into the furnace. Stand- 
ing near you will find the master mechanic, in- 
tent on discovering the opportune moment when, 
yielding to the force of the fierce flame that en- 
wraps it, the iron flows like water. In that mo- 
ment, and in that moment only, it can be molded 
into a form in which it will serve the high pur- 
pose to which the master mind has determined 
it. 

Some years ago astronomers from all the 
great observatories of the world journeyed to 
Africa to observe a transit of the planet Venus. 
Exact calculations had been made as to the mo- 
ment at which the sun, Venus and our earth 
should be in line. Then and, only then, could be 
made observations which, omitted, could not be 
made again for years to come. It was for men 
of science, whose study is the heavens, the op- 
portunity of a lifetime. 

There was an hour in the history of Great 
Britain when not only her destiny but the des- 
tiny of this western world as well, seemed to 
tremble in the balance. Good Queen Bess was 



PITTSBURG CONVENTION 179 

upon the throne of England, favorable to the 
Reformation. But Spain and France with the 
power of Rome behind them, had leagued for 
her overthrow, for the enthronement, in her 
stead, of Mary Queen of Scots, and thus for the 
staying of the Eeformation in Europe. Two 
thirds of the nobility in England had pledged 
themselves to rise against Elizabeth just as soon 
as Alva's armies, then waiting on the coast of 
the Netherlands, should land upon Scottish soil. 
These armies waited but for one thing — a spirit 
in Scotland sympathetic to the project, and 
ready to cooperate with the invading forces. 
Then arose "the man for the hour." From his 
pulpit throne in St. Andrew's, John Knox 
thundered against the unwisdom and the sin 
of alliance with Rome. His voice, to use his 
opponents ' words, was like i i the braying of ten 
thousand trumpets in Scottish ears." The men 
of the Lowlands responded. Parliament dared 
not act in the face of the spirit thus awakened. 
Scotland, Britain, aye, and the New World then 
opening, were saved to the cause that stood 
for liberty and saved by the man who was ready 
for his opportunity. 

THE MAN FOR THE HOUR A PREPARED MAN 

Now the truth which I wish to impress from 
all of these illustrations is not alone that the 
hour of opportunity, the strategic hour in life, 
comes to every man, but that the man for the 



180 THE PRESBYTERIAN BROTHERHOOD 

hour is not created by that hour, but is simply 
discovered by it and discovered ready. Study 
the lives of the men who have served their age, 
aye, who as saviours have appeared at the hour 
of deepest need for the cause they loved, and 
you will find that they were raised up for the 
occasion, not springing Minerva-fashion, full 
armed from the head of Jove, but rather fitted 
by a long process of education and training for 
the occasion toward which, all unconscious, they 
had been hastening. 

I make no apology for finding the text and, 
indeed, the suggestion for the entire treat- 
ment of the theme before us to-night, in Holy 
Scripture, for "I speak concerning . . . the 
church." Indeed, I venture to think that 
there is more than a faint and far-off resem- 
blance between the times of which I am to 
speak and those in which we are privileged to 
live. 

If I read aright the signs of the times the 
church of Jesus Christ is emerging to-day from 
a period of preparation that is rich in promise. 
That period has been marked, first, by a theo- 
logical unrest that has forced us to find a com- 
mon meeting ground of fundamental truth; 
second, by opposition on the part of antagonis- 
tic forces that has led us to seek by cooperation 
and union to face the foe with undivided ranks ; 
and third, by a spirit of organization that has 
massed the forces of the church into regiments 
and brigades, that make it not a disorganized 



PITTSBURG CONVENTION 181 

, multitude but a mighty army strong for con- 
quest. 

These things are not by chance ; for through 
all the unrest of the past, the periods of dis- 
couragement sometimes approaching to panic, 
God has been leading his church through the 
wilderness way for forty years and more to 
the borders of the promised land. If ever in 
the history of the church of the living God the 
time was ripe for a great aggressive movement, 
it is to-day — to-day when voices from above, 
from afar, from at home, are calling us to be 
strong. 

And far within old Darkness' hostile lines 
Advance, and pitch the shining tents of Light. 

The "man for the hour" is the man who 
hears the call, who sees the opportunity and who, 
with confidence, courage and hope, moves for- 
ward. 

FOUR ESSENTIAL LESSONS FOR A LEADER 

"Moses my servant is dead; now therefore 
arise!" Such was the call that summoned the 
"man for the hour" in the church of his day, 
for leadership in the great aggressive move- 
ment for which the events of years had been 
preparing. 

You have doubtless noticed that on only four 
occasions is Joshua specially mentioned previous 
to the hour when he was called to succeed his 



182 THE PRESBYTERIAN BROTHERHOOD 

great leader. If you have noted that you have 
noted also that on each of these occasions this 
future leader was taught a great fundamental 
truth that, entering into his life, prepared him 
to respond when the hour of opportunity came. 
These truths are so essential to all Christian 
success, so permanent, aye, eternal in their 
character, so universal in their application, 
that I count myself happy in thus having 
ready to my hand the Holy Spirit's own 
description of the "man for the hour in the 
church. ' ' 

Need I say that on the first of these occasions 
the lesson that Joshua was taught was one fun- 
damental then, and no less so now, to all success 
in service for God, the lesson of faith, of reliance 
upon the Most High? 

It was at Rephidim, as you remember, that 
the lesson was taught him. Joshua had gone, 
at Moses' command, and with him all the men 
fit for war, to meet the hosts of Amalek. It is 
not difficult to imagine the zeal with which the 
young general marshaled his troops, the care 
with which he laid his plan of battle, the ardor 
of the attack and the firmness with which he met 
the repeated onslaughts of the fierce Bedouin 
warriors. Nor is it difficult to picture his sur- 
prise as the day wore away toward eventide 
and victory still remained undecided. Then it 
was written deep in upon Joshua's soul that 
other forces were at work besides those of mas- 
terly organization, bold attack and brilliant de- 



PITTSBURG CONVENTION 183 

fense. Then he learned, perhaps with a meas- 
ure of surprise, that, more than by his strategy 
and daring and endeavor, victory was deter- 
mined by the hands on yonder hill, uplifted in 
weariness, but still uplifted, challenging the help 
of heaven. And that day Joshua learned that 
through prayer rather than through effort or, if 
you will, through effort made effective by 
prayer, must success come in the cause of God. 
It is the lesson of faith in the unseen that men 
need still to learn, and never more than to-day, 
when a materialistic philosophy is making a 
last effort for recognition, and when by the 
very alignment of science and commerce with 
the work of the kingdom there comes to us the 
temptation to rest in these as sufficient instru- 
ments for success, independent of that which 
is indispensable to all success — the Spirit of God. 
If God has made anything plain, through all 
the ages, it is that in the progress of his king- 
dom the first essential is that faith that ex- 
presses itself in prayer. Truly 

More things are wrought by prayer 
Than this world dreams of. 

We are concerned about the life of our great 
cities, those fields of alluring possibility and of 
overwhelming peril. Have you studied the story 
of the regeneration of a city as set forth in the 
Book of Nehemiah? Study it again and note 
how from beginning to end the upward look to 
God pervades the tale. Bearing the burden of 



184 THE PRESBYTERIAN BROTHERHOOD 

the city on his heart, the great reformer of his 
day lifted it to God — past friends and foes, past 
hinderers and helpers, past priests and princes, 
he pressed ever to the very throne of Jehovah. 
And that city, walled around, its temple re- 
stored, its streets in quietness, its splendor 
standing in such startling contrast to the heaps 
of ruins that a little while before had marked 
the city's site, is a tribute to the power of 
prayer. 

We are concerned about the evangelization of 
the heathen world. Study again the book of 
The Acts of the Apostles, and note once more 
the spirit in which the foreign missionary en- 
terprise was born. Then turn to the book of 
the modern acts of the apostles, and note how, 
from that room where William Carey cobbled 
shoes, while he cobbled he prayed for a world 
over which his heart yearned; how from the 
deck of the ship where Morrison paced through 
the long days of a wearisome journey, as he 
paced, he prayed for the land toward which he 
sailed; how in that hut in Central Africa, 
whence the soul of the great missionary ex- 
plorer took its flight, he knelt in prayer and 
besought God to raise up some one who would 
help to heal the "open sore of the world." 
From these incidents, from the great spiritual 
awakenings that have marked — and to-day are 
marking — the progress of the church in heathen 
lands, and from a thousand other similar signs, 
God is writing this truth deep in the heart of 



PITTSBURG CONVENTION 185 

the church, that by the pathway of prayer lies 
progress. 

We are concerned about the revival in spirit- 
ual life and power of the church at home. Does 
it even need to be said that every great awak- 
ening that has blessed the church has had its 
origin in prayer? That remarkable movement 
that swept through the north of Ireland in the 
year known as the "year of grace" was traced 
to the prayers of a number of young men who 
were accustomed to meet weekly in a country 
schoolhouse to plead with God for their land. 
I am speaking to men who have heard Mr. 
Moody tell how he was thrust forth into the 
work of his life, and indeed to the great work 
of his generation, by the prayers of godly 
women. 

my masters ! I will part with the purse of 
the church, on which, alas! we place such re- 
liance; I will subordinate even the preaching 
of the church, important as it is, if you will but 
give me this for the church, the secret of pre- 
vailing prayer. The "man for the hour in the 
church," be he in pulpit or in pew, at home or 
afar, administrator and organizer or engaged in 
active propaganda, is the man who knows and 
treads often the way to the heart of God. 

PATIENCE WITH GOD 

If faith in God is the primary lesson which 
the worker with God must learn, that of pa- 



186 THE PRESBYTERIAN BROTHERHOOD 

tience with God must follow it. That lesson 
Joshua learned in the second incident recorded 
of him. 

I pass by the incident with briefest descrip- 
tion, for it is familiar to you and will at once 
suggest its lesson. Joshua, with the elders of 
the tribes, had accompanied Moses up the moun- 
tain slope whither the great leader had been 
summoned by Jehovah. The elders went but a 
little way ; Joshua pressed on further, until he, 
too, was bidden to tarry, while Moses went on 
into the cloud that hid him from his servant's 
view. And then Joshua was subjected to an 
experience that, while, I believe, it was among 
the most trying of his life, was also doubtless 
one richest in results. Alone and waiting ! His 
soul exercised with concern for the people whose 
restlessness and instability he knew ! His spirit 
chafing under the delay, when every day should 
be bringing the host nearer to the land of 
promise! Why did Moses not come? So he 
questioned. And as days lengthened into weeks, 
and weeks to more than a month, Joshua's zeal- 
ous spirit was disciplined by the process of 
waiting that was to prepare him for later and 
far more trying experiences. 

There is no harder lesson to learn, nor any 
more necessary. It is difficult often to be pa- 
tient with our fellow-men ; more difficult still to 
be patient with ourselves; to be. patient with 
God is most difficult of all. There is so much to 
do, and yet oftentimes God seems to do noth- 



PITTSBURG CONVENTION 187 

ing. There is such need for progress, and yet 
the cloud stands still or God hides himself in 
thick darkness upon the mountain top. The 
forces of evil are so aggressive, so blatant, so 
derisive in their opposition and their scorn, and 
God seems to be careless. 

Restless and anxious we cry in our impa- 
tience, 

O Son of Man! to right our lot, 
Nought but thy presence will avail ; 

Yet on the road thy wheels are not, 
Nor on the seas thy sail. 

And still we complain, 

He hides himself so wondrously, 

As though there were no God; 
He is least seen, when all the powers 

Of ill, are most abroad. 

I believe there are few souls that are not thus 
tried. We are children, anxious to pluck our 
flowers three days after we have planted our 
seeds. We want movement, progress that is in 
evidence. We want — as John in his prison in 
Machserus wanted — to see the kingdom coming 
with ostentation, with overthrow of wrong and 
triumph over wickedness. We covet the short 
cut, and " short cuts are not God's." "God led 
them not through the way of the land of the 
Philistines, although that was near, . . . but 
God led them about.'' "Short cuts are not 
God's," and the man whose work for God is 
to be not ephemeral and passing, but en- 
during, must learn this. To wait is often- 
times the essence of faith; to endure is the 



188 THE PRESBYTERIAN BROTHERHOOD 

sublimest form of courage. When the destinies 
of Europe hung in the balance, on the fateful 
day of Waterloo, and the flower of Napoleon's 
army, unconquered veterans of a hundred fights, 
heroes who at Austerlitz and Jena had grown 
familiar with victory, launched themselves with 
a courage born of confidence against the army 
of the Iron Duke, there were hours when British 
courage proved itself only by British endur- 
ance and British patience. Like the waves of 
ocean in storm these magnificent legions of an 
unconquered army hurled themselves against 
the solid squares of British infantry. And as 
those squares, under repeated assaults, were 
thinned, and thinned, and thinned again, and 
men stepped silently into their fallen comrades' 
places, many a heart wondered, and some rebel- 
liously, why no command to charge — to charge 
even to death, but to death in an attempt at vic- 
tory — came from him to whom, as their leader, 
they had sworn allegiance. And yet in patient 
waiting was their victory. And the hour came 
when he who at no moment had been indifferent 
gave the command at which those squares dis- 
solved into the thin red line that swept the field, 
as the tempest sweeps the field of ripened grain. 
God is not careless. He cares ; aye, he cares 
and he works. 

Blind! I live, I love, I reign; and all the nations through, 
With the thunder of my judgments, even now are ringing. 

"Best in the Lord, and wait patiently for 
him." "Wait, I say, on the Lord." 



PITTSBURG CONVENTION 189 

CHARITY TOWARD ALL MEN 

But the man for the hour must be a man 
whose sympathies are as broad as his faith is 
strong and his patience enduring. This lesson 
of sympathy or charity Joshua learned in the 
third incident recorded of him. Assembled at 
the door of the tabernacle with Moses were the 
elders of Israel. The Spirit of the Lord fell on 
them and they prophesied. And one ran and 
cried, "Eldad and Medad do prophesy in the 
camp." Joshua's military spirit resented this 
irregularity. Why were they not in regular 
order, in proper place and under proper aus- 
pices, prophesying with the others ? Turning to 
Moses he cried, ' ' My Lord Moses, forbid them. ' ' 
But the old leader, who with years had learned 
charity, said: "Enviest thou for my sake? 
would God that all the Lord's people were 
prophets, and that the Lord would put his 
spirit upon them!" It carries us in spirit to 
an incident long after, when the disciples of 
our Lord, zealous for their Master's glory even 
in their narrowness, and zealous, too, for their 
own exclusive prestige, said to the Master, 
"Master, we saw one casting out devils in thy 
name ; and we forbad him, because he f olloweth 
not with us." And Jesus said, "Forbid him 
not : for there is no man which shall do a miracle 
in my name, that can lightly speak evil of 
me." 

It is the lesson that every age has to learn 



190 THE PRESBYTERIAN BROTHERHOOD 

anew for itself. For in every age the followers 
of the Master have been all too ready to for- 
bid all who walked not in the one way, between 
the walls of which, it seemed to them, all truth 
lay. How we all looked askance at the Salva- 
tion Army when, years ago, with blood-red ban- 
ners and beating of drums and blowing of 
bugles, they ventured to prophesy in the camp, 
and without the authority of the church to storm 
the gates of hell! And how splendidly in all 
these years God has rebuked our narrowness 
and our suspicion! 

And still we divide ourselves into hostile 
camps, contending often for our respective 
prejudices instead of gladly rallying every 
true-hearted helper to a united opposition to 
the common foe. 

Years ago, during one of the frequent wars 
between England and France, two vessels 
sighted each other just as the day was darken- 
ing. They bore down upon each other and, 
eager for conflict, hung out lights that even by 
the darkness the battle might not be delayed. 
All night long the fight waged, but in the morn- 
ing when the sun rose and discovered two dis- 
abled ships, it was seen that each ship was fly- 
ing the same flag. Such are the struggles that 
too often in the mists of this life engage us. 
To-day, when men are happily awakening to an 
impatience with historic divisions that have 
separated, we want a charity that will recognize 
as a fellow-soldier in the great campaign against 



PITTSBURG CONVENTION 191 

evil every man who flies for his colors the ban- 
ner of the cross, and who subscribes to the 
Spirit-inspired creed of the whole Christian 
church — Jesus is Lord! 



COURAGE 

I have been describing the all-round man, the 
man who in the graces of the Spirit stands, like 
that city of God let down from heaven, four- 
square, its length, its breadth and its height 
equal. Faith! That is the soul's height, its 
uplook. Patience! That is the soul's length, 
its onlook. Charity ! That is the soul 's breadth, 
its outlook. I am not straining Scripture. The 
character complete in Christ Jesus is the same 
wherever found. 

Now what spirit must pervade such a char- 
acter as I have described if it is to be efficient 
and forceful in life? A spirit of courageous 
devotion. And this Joshua learned on that oc- 
casion when, with Caleb, he stood for God 
against the rest of the spies, and against the 
whole multitude. And as the years passed and 
he saw the bones of those who had come out of 
Egypt with him whitening on the desert sands, 
it was written deep upon his soul that the man 
who stands with God is the man who prevails. 

We all acknowledge the need of a devotion to 
our Lord that will enable us to stand with him, 
even when so to stand means to have the world 
in opposition. But where and how is such de- 



192 THE PRESBYTERIAN BROTHERHOOD 

votion to be inspired? I know of only one 
place; it is at the cross of Calvary. I know 
of only one way; it is by filling the soul with 
the vision of the Christ. l ' The Son of God, who 
loved me, and gave himself for me ! ' ' cried the 
great apostle, and that was the secret of a 
life majestic in its enterprise and splendid, be- 
yond the power of words to describe, in its de- 
votion. After all, I believe that yon will find 
at the heart of every life of splendid service a 
supreme devotion to a person. It is a person 
rather than a cause that challenges a man to be 
and to give his best. Years ago the men of the 
Highlands left behind them their flocks and 
fields, their castles and their heaths, to follow 
a prince who had won their hearts. 

' ' Follow thee ! ' ' they sang 

" Follow thee! 

Wha wad na follow thee? 

Lang hast thou lo'ed 

And trusted us fairly. 

Charlie! Charlie! 

Wha wad na follow thee? 

King o' our Hielan' hearts 

Bonnie Prince Charlie ! ' * 

Devotion to a person was the secret of their 
sacrifice and service. 

And it is so in the service of the Christ. It 
is the vision of him who is at once my Saviour 
and my Strength that makes me bold for service 
and strong for suffering. 

And, men of the Brotherhood, we need this 
courage to-day. On every hand tidings of the 



PITTSBURG CONVENTION 193 

distress and peril of our times come to ns. It 
is a Chicago editor, is it not, who declares that 
of all ministers in America nine out of every 
ten are discouraged men, regretting that they 
ever entered the ministry. It was the secre- 
tary of the Baptist Association in England who 
entitled his annual report ' ' The Arrested Prog- 
ress of Religion in England." It is a popular 
preacher in New York who has been announc- 
ing from his pulpit-throne the failure of the 
church in New York to meet present-day con- 
ditions, and it is Dr. Strong who arrests us 
with these amazing figures, that if the progress 
of the church in overtaking the population of 
the country be represented for the first half of 
the last century by eighty, then it will be rep- 
resented for the last half of the same century 
by twenty, for the last twenty years by four 
and for the last decade by one. 

These are startling assertions, and I have no 
desire that we should close our eyes to the 
seriousness of existing conditions. But, men of 
America, we must have a vision that will see 
more than the difficulties. 

I hear Moses inquiring of the spies who had 
searched out the promised land: 

"What did you see?" 

" Oh ! we saw cities ; cities walled to heaven ; 
and we saw armies great and strong; and we 
saw giants, and sons of giants ; yes, we saw the 
sons of Anak, and we were as grasshoppers in 
their sight!" 



194 THE PRESBYTERIAN BROTHERHOOD 

"Joshua, what did you see? Did you see the 
giants !" 

"Yes, we saw them." 

"And walled cities ?" 

"Yes, we saw the walled cities.' ' 

"And did you see the sons of Anak?" 

"Yes, them also we saw." 

"Saw you aught else, Joshua?" 

' i My Lord Moses, we saw God. God ! and we 
be well able to go up and possess the land, for 
our God is with us." 

And the secret of courage for you and for me 
to-day in the face of conditions that, I confess, 
are sometimes calculated to appal us, is the 
vision of him who from Olivet's height said to 
his disciples, "All power is given unto me . . . 
and, lo, I am with you. ' ' 

And now, to close. Whom have I been de- 
scribing; a leader only? A man conspicuous 
in a nation and in his age? Not so. I have 
been describing the man who, in any field, how- 
ever obscure, would serve the church of the 
living God. This life is to be yours and mine, 
and may be yours and mine as truly as it may 
be the life of the leader for whose inspiring call 
the whole church waits. 

The virtuoso of the piano is with us again. I 
have listened to him, as you have, as with 
magic touch he has seemed to breathe his very 
soul into that dead thing of wood and wire and 
metal, as he has seemed to make it live with his 
life, to utter his longings, to whisper the secrets 



PITTSBURG CONVENTION 195 

of his soul, to challenge the elements in storm, 
or to steal away into a silence that can be felt. 
And I have said, as I listened, if human genius 
can give voice, and longing, and power to in- 
spire to a dead instrument, what cannot the 
might of the Spirit of God make of even my life 
if it be laid at his feet for his service ? 

men, I challenge you for Jesus Christ to- 
night. By the cross of Christ, by the vision of 
Calvary, let us present our bodies living sacri- 
fices unto him: it is our reasonable service. 



THE BROTHERHOOD AND THE SUPPLY 

OF MINISTERIAL LEADERSHIP 

IN THE CHURCH 

BY PRESIDENT GEORGE B. STEWART, D.D. 

President Holt. — Those of you who listened 
with any attention to the reading of the Coun- 
cil's report this morning, must have caught 
the vision which is in the heart of all of us who 
stand close to the Brotherhood, that somehow 
it should be instrumental in attracting men of 
the highest quality to the ministerial service 
and leadership in the church. It is with that 
thought in mind that we have asked an eminent 
expert of wide experience to speak to us on the 
relation of the Brotherhood to the recruiting 
of the ministry — Dr. George B. Stewart of 
Auburn Theological Seminary. 

Dr. Stewart. — I do not echo the cry, "More 
ministers,' ' for to that call there is danger of 
incompetent men, wordly minded men, self- 
seeking men, men with unhallowed ambitions 
responding, and we do not want them. We 
have enough of that sort, even though we had 
only one. "What we do need is more ministers 
of the right sort ; men who have a vision ; men 
who, under the guidance of the divine Spirit, 
have a message; men with a heart, with a 

196 



PITTSBURG CONVENTION 197 

human touch, with their windows open toward 
heaven, that the influence of God may pour 
through them to the lost and ruined world. We 
need men of intellectual ability, men of affairs, 
men who have capacity for leadership. I am 
glad that the emphasis has been put on the 
word * i leadership ' ' in connection with this sub- 
ject. We cannot have too many men of this 
sort in the ministry, and there never was a time 
in the history of the church when the need was 
greater, no matter how great the need may have 
been in other times. 

The very existence of this Brotherhood, and 
of the movements in the church for which it 
stands, emphasizes this need. It used to be 
that the minister was the whole thing. He was 
It. But we have discovered that the layman is 
the backbone of the church. And in the lan- 
guage of the sophomoric orator, "We are bring- 
ing the backbone to the front." We ought to. 
But the simple fact that this is a layman's age 
creates the need for this leadership. It may 
be that we do not need men to preach any more 
than we did formerly, as there has always been 
need for preachers. But we do need men who 
are able to marshal the great forces of the 
church which are now being let loose, these 
great lay forces which are so vast, so intelli- 
gent, so skillful, so enthusiastic, so consecrated. 
There is need for men to marshal these forces, 
organize them, instruct them, guide them in the 
worship of Grod and in service for their fellow- 



198 THE PRESBYTERIAN BROTHERHOOD 

men. That is the function of these leaders 
to-day whom we call ministers. 

I am not sure but that this Brotherhood has 
addressed itself in this topic to one of the ques- 
tions that are most vital to the Brotherhood 
itself. For unless the church is properly led 
by men who are trained, competent, skillful, 
consecrated, I see very little of promise for 
large efficiency and effectiveness of such an 
organization within the church as this is. The 
Brotherhood needs the minister if it is to come 
to its own. Therefore, in this topic there is a 
problem most vital to you as well as to the 
larger interests of the church. 

Now, it is worth our while to understand at 
the very beginning that we are talking about 
men who are competent for leadership. An 
army badly led is worse off than if it were 
without leadership. Many a battle has been 
lost because the leader was incompetent, and 
I fear many of the battles of the church 
are being lost because of poor generalship. 
Strategic points are not being held; work that 
is needed is not done; forces that ought to be 
called out, directed, instructed, are lying dor- 
mant; great possibilities are passing unheeded 
and unused; possibilities for extension and de- 
velopment of the work of Christ in the world 
are being neglected because of incompetent 
leadership. We might as well recognize this 
fact and reckon with it. If I understand the 
spirit of this Brotherhood, and I think I do, 



PITTSBURG CONVENTION 199 

it desires not leadership, but competent and 
trained and skillful leadership, the best leader- 
ship possible to get. 

It is a sorry thing for any great profession, 
sorry for the profession and for those human 
interests committed to it, when its practice 
falls into the hands of men who are not quali- 
fied for it. The profession of law — what if our 
lawyers were largely incompetent? Of course, 
some of them are. What if our doctors were 
all quacks? How quickly we would spring to 
the rescue of ourselves and of our interests 
from such leadership. Now there is no pro- 
fession — I think this will go unchallenged in 
this body— which has in it so many capable, 
strong, effective, consecrated men, men with a 
single eye, men with informed minds, men with 
hearts aflame, as the ministerial profession. 
Our ministers, as a body, are a superb set of 
men. But I am speaking to the end that it 
may be kept such. I plead with you as brothers 
in this great church of ours that you see to it 
that in the days to come the men who practice 
this profession, the leaders whom we call our 
ministers, are kept consecrated, informed, skill- 
ful, competent. Now, what can you do? 

In the first place, it seems to me that you 
can help in this matter by bringing your own 
minister to a larger efficiency, and show in this 
way to the young men of our church in your 
community that it is worth while to be a min- 
ister. There are a lot of young men who do 



200 THE PRESBYTERIAN BROTHERHOOD 

not think that. I talk with college men who 
do not think that. They tell me that one reason 
why many of them do not care to go into the 
ministry is because they want to put their lives 
where they will count for much, and the min- 
istry does not offer them that opportunity. The 
notion prevalent, all too largely, among men, 
is the one expressed by the mother when she 
brought her son to the minister and said she 
wanted him to study for the ministry, assign- 
ing as the reason, "He would not make a 
lawyer, and not make a doctor, and he is not 
good for anything else, so I want to make a 
minister out of him." (Laughter.) The no- 
tion prevails, and hence we are directed to this 
young man, or that young man, and told that, 
as he is a good, consecrated fellow, as he is 
very pious, takes part in prayer meeting, is 
much interested in religious work, he would 
make a good minister. But we want in the 
ministry men who are not only good but good 
for something. We must convince these young 
men of affairs, who feel within them the mov- 
ings of power, who have an outlook upon life, 
who have enthusiasms and high ideals, that the 
ministry offers to them a large sphere for use- 
fulness, practically the largest they can find. 

One of the most effective ways for doing this 
by the Brotherhood is by making your own 
minister conspicuous for such usefulness. You 
can do this in a great many respects. You can 
furnish him opportunities for service which he 



PITTSBURG CONVENTION 201 

might not be able to find without you. For 
example, a young minister has just resigned a 
church in which there were large possibilities 
for usefulness, in which he had a satisfactory 
salary, and has gone to another field because 
the work that needed to be done in his parish, 
which he knew he could do, could not be done 
without more money being put into it. His men 
would not put down the cash. He told me, "I 
have exhausted every penny of my salary that 
my wife and I could save, cutting down our 
expenses to the last notch, putting the savings 
in the parish work." But others would not 
follow his example. If there were a Brother- 
hood in that church, shame on it! If it should 
happen to be your church in any degree, my 
brother, correct the situation by putting money 
into administrative expenses. Make your min- 
ister an effective man in the community by not 
clipping his wings and withholding from his 
work and the work of the church the necessary 
funds. 

You can help your minister to broadness of 
thought. Many a minister is cramped, cribbed 
and confined in his thinking because the con- 
gregation hedges him about. There are a good 
many topics he cannot discuss in the pulpit, but 
many of these are questions in the theological 
world, questions in the biblical studies, questions 
in the sphere of social activity, about which he 
ought to be informed. Encourage him through 
your Brotherhood meetings, and in other ways, 



202 THE PRESBYTERIAN BROTHERHOOD 

to read, to think, to speak on these questions. 
Give him the largest liberty. Take away from 
him the fear of being called a heretic or an en- 
thusiast or a one-idea man. Allow him to 
speak with freedom in your Brotherhood and 
elsewhere, and thus let the young men in your 
church see that you do not surround him with 
barriers over which he dare not go for fear of 
losing his official head. Young men have the 
impression that the minister does not have 
liberty to think or to speak. Take away that 
impression from the young men of your com- 
munity by removing such hedges about your 
minister, if there are any. I sat by a lay- 
man the other day at a dinner party, and I 
happened to suggest that it might be a good 
plan to change the name "Sabbath school" to 
Sunday school. I thought it was a most in- 
nocent suggestion, but because of it I may now 
be in danger of being tried for heresy. If I 
were in his presbytery I fear I might have 
trouble. If you are threatening to pull what 
little hair your minister may have left, because 
he ventures to express an opinion on some 
mooted question in the church with which you 
do not happen to agree, you may be discourag- 
ing some bright young man from going into the 
ministry. Men are reading books which some 
young men think the minister dare not read 
or discuss for fear of losing his official posi- 
tion. Take away that suspicion. Give him the 
longest rope. Do not tether your minister with 



PITTSBURG CONVENTION 203 

too short a tether, intellectual, financial or 
spiritual. 

There is another way in which you can help 
to increase the supply of the ministry with the 
kind of leadership you want. That is by be- 
ginning in your own home with your own boy. 
What are you going to do with him ? What are 
your ambitions for him ? Have you ever thought 
of the ministry! A minister was asked the 
other day by a prominent member of his church, 
' 'What are you going to do with your boy?" 
"I am hoping that he may have a call to the 
ministry, and I am using all wise means to 
bring it about." "Oh, pshaw, he is too bright 
a boy, and has too much promise in him to sacri- 
fice him in that way," was the reply. Is that 
the way you feel about your boy? I know of 
the case of a young man deciding in favor of 
the ministry. Man after man eminent in the 
church asked his father in a good and hearty 
way what his boy was going to do. When told 
of his decision they almost to a man, by manner 
or tone of voice, revealed their disappointment 
or commiseration. Is that the way you feel ? If 
so, there is no use talking to you about increas- 
ing the supply of the ministry. So long as you 
keep back the best — your boy, your splendid 
boy — do not lament that the supply of the min- 
istry is inadequate or the quality is inferior. 

Your boy who has capacity for leadership, 
which shows when he plays with his companions, 
who has the human touch, who has the making 



204 THE PRESBYTERIAN BROTHERHOOD 

of a big man, give him to the ministry, to this, 
the largest career that is open to a young man 
of this day, and pray that he may go to the task 
of working with the mightiest forces in our 
community. Electricity is not in it. The elec- 
trical engineer, although wielding the greatest 
physical forces, handles nothing to compare 
with those infinite forces in the hands of the 
young minister. These great forces that are 
making for righteousness in this community, 
these forces that are making for the uplift of 
mankind, these forces that are making for the 
bringing of the kingdom of heaven among men, 
are the mightiest, the most beneficent that the 
world knows anything about. It may be a life 
of poverty, it may be a life of self-denial, to 
which the young minister dedicates himself, but 
in the language of President Roosevelt, "It is a 
life that wins men who are willing to suffer and 
to fight. ' ' There is no heroism that is superior 
to the heroism that may be found upon the great 
moral battlefields of the world and of the heart. 
One was willing to die and he fell with his feet 
to the foe and a smile on his lips. Another was 
willing to live. He suffered and served, and he 
smiled through his sufferings. Heroes both, 
though the one may be sung and remembered 
and the other unsung and forgotten. 

You can do very much as a Brotherhood and 
as individuals for this supply of the ministry. 
Do not pick out mollycoddles. Do not look for 
the men who affect the long coat and white tie, 



PITTSBURG CONVENTION 205 

and are utterly goody-good. The ministry can 
get along without them. Let them go into the 
law. (Laughter.) But search out in your con- 
gregation the young man of strength, the su- 
perb young man, the young man with culture, 
the young man who knows how to carry himself 
in the presence of men, the young man who has 
the capacity to bring things to pass and do 
things, the young man of promise — of the most 
promise — and call his attention, direct his 
thought, direct his steps, by exhortation, by in- 
formation, by prayer, to this magnificent career. 

There is much more, of course, that might be 
said, and even this could have been so much 
more effectively said, it seems to me, than I 
have said it; but, brothers, I have not spoken 
in vain if I have been able to impress upon you 
these three things. 

First, that the ministry offers a career* for a 
young man of character, of force, of high ideals, 
of enthusiasm, such as he can find nowhere else 
for saving his fellow-men in this generation, 
and for the glory of God. Second, that we 
have need for such young men, and there is not 
only room at the top, but room all the way along 
for men of character and caliber. Third, that 
this Brotherhood can be a great force in the 
several congregations and in its great organi- 
zation for bringing up the character of the min- 
istry as at present constituted, and for winning 
the choicest of the wheat, the finest and superb- 
est of our young men for this highest and noblest 



206 THE PRESBYTERIAN BROTHERHOOD 

of all callings, the mightiest of all leaderships. 
If I have succeeded in bringing these three 
things to your mind in such a way that you will 
go home to act on them in your own several 
Brotherhoods, I shall feel that I have spoken to 
good purpose. (Applause.) 



THE BROTHERHOOD AND THE HOME 

MISSIONARY ENTERPRISE OF 

THE CHURCH 

BY WILLIAM C. RADER, D.D. 

President Holt. — Brethren of the Conven- 
tion: The Brotherhood and the home mis- 
sionary enterprise of the church; what com- 
bination could be more inspiring? And that it 
should be discussed by a speaker from San 
Francisco gives it a peculiar flavor and at- 
tractiveness. Some of us remember the early 
years of our studies in geography when San 
Francisco stood in our minds as the type of 
everything remote and inaccessible — mission- 
ary ground in every sense of the word. With- 
out wholly losing that kind of interest it has 
added a new one in recent years through civic 
developments, emphasizing the fact that the 
struggle for righteousness is perpetual, and that 
it is demanded alike in the oldest settled civili- 
zations which we think most removed from the 
need of missionary enterprise and in the distant 
home of the pioneer. The speaker to-night 
comes fresh from active and serviceable leader- 
ship of the churches in San Francisco's fight 
against graft and municipal corruption, and 
what he has to say here in Pittsburg will be of 
peculiar interest to men from various sections 

207 



208 THE PRESBYTERIAN BROTHERHOOD 

of the country. Dr. William C. Rader, of San 
Francisco, will speak on the relation of the 
Brotherhood to the home missionary enterprise 
of the church. 

Dr. Rader. — Mr. Chairman, Members of the 
Brotherhood: I thank you very much on be- 
half of the Pacific Coast for this cordial greet- 
ing. When I tell you that I am the only rep- 
resentative from that part of our country, it 
will explain the fact that we are to hold a con- 
vention of our own in the near future, which 
we shall divide into five parts, holding one in 
the city of Los Angeles, one in San Francisco, 
one in Seattle, one in Portland and one in Spo- 
kane, and you are all cordially invited to be 
present at all of these meetings. (Applause.) 
In explanation of this announcement I should 
say that we have in the West a man who is con- 
spicuously absent, and regrettably so, from this 
meeting, a splendidly stalwart Presbyterian lay- 
man known not only in the United States, but 
throughout the Christian world, John Willis 
Baer, president of Occidental College. (Ap- 
plause.) 

There have been four noticeable conquests of 
America. The first was that of the pioneer 
who crossed the continent when there was no 
bridge over the river, no track through the 
desert, no path through the forest. He made 
conquests of the Indian and the forest and the 
desert, and laid the foundations of this great 



PITTSBURO CONVENTION 209 

republic. He was not alone, however, in his 
pioneer conquests of physical America. Side 
by side with him was a great figure in early 
American life known to the church and history 
as the home missionary preacher. He carried 
his library in his saddlebags and his creed like 
a flame of fire in his heart. The home mission- 
ary preacher riding across the frontier, swim- 
ming river and stream, and threading his way 
across the trackless desert is a powerful char- 
acter in the early life of America. It was he 
who opened the middle West, as the history of 
Clark and Lewis will bear witness; it was he 
who saved the great Northwest and particularly 
Oregon to this country, as the name of Marcus 
Whitman testifies. Daniel Webster is reported 
to have said that he would not give a dollar for 
the whole Northwest, but Daniel Webster was 
mistaken. It was the home missionary who 
opened the Golden Gate of California, and with 
his flag and Bible laid the foundations of the 
Empire of the Pacific. It was in 1852 that 
Seward declared that the Pacific region would 
one day be the theater of the world's greatest 
events. That prophecy has already come true, 
for the world events of the immediate future 
are even now transpiring in that Pacific theater. 
Once it was three thousand miles from New 
York to San Francisco. Now it is three thou- 
sand miles from San Francisco to New York. 
(Laughter.) Once the New York Harbor 
was the front door of the republic and the 



210 THE PRESBYTEKIAN BROTHERHOOD 

Golden Gate was the back yard, but now the 
front gate is by the city of San Francisco, and 
the future of our race will very largely be solved 
in the events which are to transpire, and even 
now are transpiring, in the great Pacific region. 
The second conquest was by the soldier who 
fought the battles of the nation, the Eevolu- 
tion and the Eebellion. You remember that 
minuteman who stands in his spotless marble 
at Concord, and the words of Ralph Waldo Em- 
erson : 

By the rude bridge that arched the flood, 
Their flag to April 's breeze unfurled, 

Here once the embattled farmers stood, 

And fired the shot heard round the world. 

He made the second conquest of our country. 

The third was made by the business man who 
inaugurated the great commercial and business 
era of our people. He built bridges and rail- 
ways, digged canals, constructed cities and 
shaped the business destinies of the people. 

Wonderful, indeed, is the wealth of our 
country. I read that during the thirty years 
from 1860 to 1890 our created and accumu- 
lated wealth was forty-nine billion dollars more 
than the entire wealth of Great Britain, and 
in the next fourteen years our accumulations 
reached the sum of forty-two billion dollars. We 
have more money than we know what to do with. 

Wonderful has been the commercial conquest 
of air and electricity and coal and oil and forest 
in this country, and this magnificent city which 



PITTSBUKG CONVENTION 211 

has extended its rich hospitality to us is only 
one of the reminders of this enormous wealth 
which has been created and accumulated dur- 
ing the past half century under our eyes. 

The next conquest, and that with which we 
are now engaged, is that of the Christian men. 
The most significant sign of the times is the 
organized revolt of Christian men against the 
prevailing materialism of our day. This is one 
of the assurances, gentlemen, that the kingdom 
of God is surely coming. Weary of the ma- 
terialistic conditions of the past, the men of the 
pew as well as the men of the pulpit are or- 
ganizing themselves and assaulting these con- 
ditions which have so vitiated our common 
American life. In doing this they have fol- 
lowed the laws of nature. The stars cluster to- 
gether, the great redwoods of the Pacific and 
the Sierras group themselves, the fishes of the 
sea swim in schools, the flowers congregate in 
radiant clusters of splendor. And is it not in 
harmony with this law that we men of this gen- 
eration should fulfill the high commission of 
our Master and go into all the world and dispel 
all the evils of men? Thank God, we are be- 
ginning to work heart to heart, shoulder to 
shoulder, mind to mind, as one great unbroken 
army of the Lord Jesus Christ. 

The time has come when we are emphasizing 
not the material product of our country, but 
things of finer value than the material. I notice 
wherever I go, that every city and every town, 



212 THE PRESBYTERIAN BROTHERHOOD 

with the exception of Pittsburg, of course, has 
something bigger than any other city and any 
other town. It is either a tree, a bridge, a moun- 
tain, a building, a hotel or something else. The 
time will come when men in American cities will 
not point to this great hotel or that commercial 
commodity as the chief thing, for I look for- 
ward to the time when men will say even in 
Pittsburg or San Francisco, "I wish to show 
you in yonder city hall the finest city govern- 
ment on earth. (Applause.) I want to show 
you on yonder avenue the finest collection of 
paintings in America. I wish to point you to 
the finest college or university or public school 
system. I want you to go around the corner 
and meet the grandest man in America." We 
must not only get the oil from the soil and gold 
from the mine, but men and institutions which 
shall indicate the presence of Jesus of Nazareth. 
That is what we want. (Applause.) 

What are some of the problems before us? 
This question you have given me involves our 
relations to the living issues of the day. I come 
before you this evening with no polished essay, 
no finished speech, but to talk as man to man 
about our relations to the great problems of 
America, and I am going to talk to you, just as 
straight, just as simply, as it is possible for me 
to talk, and you will listen to me in the same 
spirit. We are here for a great purpose. T 
desire to speak to you men of America on some 
of the living issues we are called upon to face. 



PITTSBURG CONVENTION 213 

The first is the negro question. There are 
ten millions of negroes who stretch their dusky 
hands across the Potomac to-night to the white 
man of the North asking for help. Men of 
America, this is a very serious question, and 
especially when the magic name of America 
rings in all ears north, south, east and west, 
and it is an all-important issue when it is re- 
membered that the question that Lincoln had 
to deal with we must deal with, and the problem 
that he was called upon to solve has not yet 
been solved. One of the perils of America is 
that we have grown but one Abraham Lincoln. 
May God give us more Abraham Lincolns to 
solve the problems that we of this generation 
must need solve for the safety of our nation. 
The solution of the negro question may be found 
in that pregnant world " education " — an edu- 
cation to self-help and self-respect on the part 
of the negro, and the education of the white man, 
on the other hand, that we may better under- 
stand our duty and his needs. 

The second problem is immigration. This 
is such a large question I can only mention it. 
We are familiar with the facts. They are ap- 
palling. While there are sixty-six different 
tongues spoken in the city of New York, you and 
I as Christian men should sit up and take notice, 
and when it is shown that in the past ten years 
foreigners have come to this country in such 
numbers as to make a city the size of London, 
we must look carefully after our national ideals. 



214 THE PRESBYTERIAN BROTHERHOOD 

When a million foreigners come to this country 
every year it is a matter of serious import to 
our institutions. We recognize the fact that 
some of the best blood in our country is foreign 
blood. Indeed, most of us may be called for- 
eigners. If you name ten of the leading men 
of America in all probability eight of them will 
be of foreign birth. It is to our credit and to 
their credit. I speak not of those splendid rep- 
resentatives of the old world who have carried 
culture into the new. I speak rather of the 
hordes, the millions, the multitudes of the old 
world who are filling up our great cities with 
poverty and anarchy and crime. We have in 
the West the Japanese and the Chinese question. 
We also have the President of the United States. 
(Applause.) If Africa succeeds in holding 
Theodore Roosevelt it will be a miracle! He 
is everywhere. He has been in the California 
legislature at Sacramento a good deal of the 
time during the last few weeks, and the better 
people of California like that, and agree with 
his policy. (Applause.) You here in the East 
may not know all about the Japanese question 
in the West. The only thing I can say to you 
is this, that in order to avoid future crisis 
and clash, let the men of America take a more 
personal interest in what is the great Jap- 
anese and American question on the Pacific 
Coast. 

The next question I want to touch upon is 
labor and capital. It makes a Presbyterian 



PITTSBURG CONVENTION 215 

proud to recall the fact, that we, as a denomina- 
tion, are doing more for the laboring classes 
than any other denomination in the country, 
thanks to Mr. Stelzle. (Applause.) But there 
is much more to be done. 

The workingman is alienated from the church, 
and alienated from capital, but not alienated as 
I believe from the fundamental principles of 
the Lord Jesus Christ. He is to be won, not 
by our conventional evangelistic methods, but 
he is to be won, if at all, by right thinking, along 
right lines in the interest of a square deal, in 
obedience to law, for one of the things we have 
been taught from the White House at Washing- 
ton is this : That labor and capital in the light 
of Christian truth must obey the laws of the 
land and the laws of God. (Applause.) It is 
a part of the duty of the Presbyterian laymen 
to think through the hard problem of labor and 
capital in their relation to Christianity. This 
is distinctly involved in the home missionary 
enterprise of the church. 

Then, too, we have the problem of the saloon, 
which is being slowly but surely solved. Light 
began to break at the base of the monument 
dedicated to the memory of Henry Grady, where 
negro blood was shed because whisky had been 
used. Then the light broke all along the horizon 
over the whole nation. The words of the early 
apostles returned with power, the messages of 
John B. Gough, Neal Dow and the eloquent 
Frances E. Willard. These first apostles of 



216 THE PRESBYTERIAN BROTHERHOOD 

temperance reform did not waste their efforts, 
but as the rain and the snow reappear in flower 
and fruit, their lives now return to our genera- 
tion in far-reaching reform. 

One of the signs of the times is that at last 
God's great clock has struck the doom of the 
American saloon. (Applause.) As I look into 
the faces of this, a fragment of an innumerably 
larger army of Christian patriots, I can under- 
stand why at last that incarnation of bad poli- 
tics, that expression of all that is horrible in 
social and domestic life, is meeting its doom and 
is to pass out of existence. Men of America, let 
us stand with all our might against the organ- 
ized liquor traffic of this country. It has been 
here long enough corrupting our youth, de- 
bauching our politics, ruining our homes ; let 
us with all our might strike it with ballot and 
Bible, that it may go down to its death. 

Now I come to the next problem which I have 
been asked to speak upon. It is the problem of 
municipal misrule. San Francisco sends her 
greetings to Pittsburg, and you gentlemen from 
Chicago and Philadelphia (laughter) may share 
them if you will. (Applause.) 

Before the fire (we never speak of it as the 
earthquake) (laughter) the labor people were 
in power in San Francisco. There were signs 
of corruption, as there are in all our large cities. 
By the way, I would not have you think that 
San Francisco is an exception to the cities of 
the United States. There is not one that is well 



PITTSBURG CONVENTION 217 

governed, not one but would disclose the most 
remarkable corruption if you turned the sleuths 
and lawyers into it to investigate; and that is 
one of the issues we have to face. It belongs to 
our home missionary enterprise. The city is 
becoming a menace to the Eepublic. It affects 
the whole body politic. A newspaper in San 
Francisco began to make some investigations on 
its own responsibility and its editors were as- 
saulted, the windows of the building broken 
and mobs surrounded the place where the papers 
were issued. Then came the great disaster on 
which I need not dwell, but before the bricks 
were cool it was discovered that the administra- 
tion was stealing the rights of the people. We 
knew not what to do. There lay our great city 
in ashes, in twisted steel and iron, acres on acres 
stretched out before us like a graveyard. Over 
fifty of our churches were in ruins. When we 
discovered that even then the administration 
was stealing the people 's rights, we went to one 
man whose name I mention to-night more than 
once with reverence, Theodore Roosevelt. (Ap- 
plause.) We asked him what to do, and he 
turned over to us two of the finest men in the 
Federal Department of the United States Gov- 
ernment; one was Detective Burns and the 
other was a product of our own western country, 
Francis J. Heney. (Applause.) It was neces- 
sary that we should have money and we came 
back to San Francisco and asked some of our 
rich men to give us money, among whom was 



218 THE PRESBYTERIAN BROTHERHOOD 

Rudolph Spreckels, a young millionaire. He 
said, "I will go out and get fifteen men to assist 
me. ' ' He did not get one and lie came back and 
said, "I will put up a hundred thousand myself 
and, if necessary, two hundred thousand to 
purge this city of the grafters." (Applause.) 
That is the kind of manhood we need every- 
where now, men of money who are not afraid 
to spend it in the interest of municipal patriot- 
ism. This is a very good example of practical 
religion. Then began the most remarkable 
campaign against vice this country has ever 
known. Some day the history will be printed 
and the men of the country will be appalled at 
the disclosures. The grand jury began its in- 
dictments. I do not know how many indict- 
ments were made against the mayor and his 
boss and the board of supervisors. It is enough 
to say that the whole administration with the 
single exception of the district attorney's office 
was smirched, and so government was broken 
in San Francisco. We sent the mayor to jail, 
we sent his boss to jail, and put in a new board 
of supervisors, a new mayor, a new police chief. 
But there are always courts up above who may 
reverse things and we happened to omit a dot 
on the "i" or the crossing of a "t," and we for- 
got to say that the mayor was actually the 
mayor, and two upper courts let the mayor and 
his boss out. We only convicted one at the first 
round. You know the California spirit is a 
very plucky kind of spirit. We are not easily 



PITTSBURG CONVENTION 219 

frightened, so we turned around and we tried 
Mr. Ruef again; the jury was bribed and he 
escaped. Undaunted we tried him again, con- 
victed him and sentenced him to San Quentin 
Prison for fourteen years. Now we have be- 
fore us in the courts the head of the United 
Railways there, Patrick Calhoun. Now, gentle- 
men, I want to say to you in passing that 
during these trials the opposition resorted to 
every possible strategy; dynamite was used to 
blow up witnesses, slander, assassination, money, 
were all used to fight the prosecution and de- 
stroy the enemy. In a recent trial of the Ruef 
case, Mr. Heney, the district attorney, was shot 
down by a saloon keeper, at his post of duty at 
the court room. Then it was that San Francisco 
and the whole State of California rose up as one 
man and organized itself in a league of justice 
for the purpose of standing by the courts so far 
as the courts stood by the law, and by asserting 
their rights as American citizens. We have, 
therefore, a great league of justice composed 
of the best men in San Francisco, and side by 
side with that league is an auxiliary league com- 
posed of twenty-five hundred patriotic women. 
Remember that. (Applause.) 

Now what were some of the things found in 
this prosecution? First, we found a very poor 
type of patriotism, not only in the city of San 
Francisco, but in all the cities of our country. 
What is patriotism? It is not swinging your 
cap in the air when the fleet is on the waters. It 



220 THE PRESBYTERIAN BROTHERHOOD 

is not carrying a chip on your shoulder and 
measuring the strength of your standing army. 
It is not merely waving the Stars and Stripes 
and exulting over a foreign foe. It is not 
bragging what we did to Spain or Great Brit- 
ain or anybody else in the past. Patriotism is 
obedience to law. Patriotism is uprightness. 
Patriotism is the political realization of the 
kingdom of Grod. Patriotism is a man doing his 
duty in the ward in which he lives, looking after 
the municipal conditions of his city and enforc- 
ing law wherever law needs to be enforced. We 
need in this country to have a revival of good 
old-fashioned democracy, a revival of national 
patriotism, a revival of a sense of civic justice 
and Christian citizenship throughout our great 
country, and that is what you may find lacking 
in the city of Pittsburg before you have finished. 

We found there also an indifference to public 
duty. Private self-interest seemed to swallow 
up public responsibility. We owe a duty to the 
public, and in filling this duty we simply assert 
our rights as Christian citizens. I care not how 
good a man may be, how much money he may 
have, how high his position in the church may 
be, unless he fulfills his obligations to the public 
and meets his vows to the commonwealth, he is 
not, strictly speaking, a Christian patriot or 
citizen. 

Now this matter of municipal misrule is a 
national matter. We must not ignore the fact 
that the city government is essentially related 



PITTSBURG CONVENTION 221 

to the national government. We are living in 
great days. I am not a pessimist, but I say to 
you men if we are going to continue in the way 
we are going and have been going for the past 
decade, I am sure no man can prophesy the des- 
tiny of this nation. Our cities are filled with 
men who steal the rights of the people. Think 
of the city that put up at auction its franchises, 
every office, every privilege, and sold them to 
the highest bidders. Think of the cities through- 
out this country which are doing in a small or 
large degree precisely the same thing. If our 
Christianity means anything, it means defense 
against such thievery. It means a united as- 
sault against such grafters. It means the unifi- 
cation of the consciousness of the church for 
the benefit of the community. Our government 
is not out of the experimental stage, and let us 
not make the mistake of thinking that we have 
passed through the strenuous times which have 
tested the government. It may be that the ship 
of state is to meet its roughest waters, and as 
I stand before you young laymen to-night I 
urge upon you to take a deeper interest in mu- 
nicipal affairs. I urge upon you ministers to 
take a stand upon questions involving civic 
righteousness. If you are afraid, get out of the 
pulpit. Now is not the time for platitudes ; now 
is the day of salvation. It is more important 
that we should understand the needs of the city 
of Pittsburg and the city of San Francisco than 
that we should know the dimensions and beauty 



222 THE PRESBYTEEIAN BROTHERHOOD 

and spiritual significance of the New Jerusalem. 
It is of more importance that you laymen 
should study the present situation than that you 
should study the times of Moses and Joshua. 
Now is the day of judgment. If you want to 
keep your flag in the sky I urge you to rouse 
yourselves to your responsibility as Christian 
patriots. ( Applause. ) 

What are the agencies'? 

First, Protestantism; second, the church; 
third, the Bible, and last, and most important 
of all, the religion of Jesus Christ dwelling in 
the soul, and showing itself in character and 
conduct. 

We must be better Protestants, such as Daniel 
in the lions' den, Isaiah declaring the whole 
truth of God, John the Baptist, John Knox, 
Martin Luther and Savonarola, Catholic in 
faith but Protestant in his invincible opposi- 
tion to Lorenzo the Magnificent and Alexan- 
der VI. Protestantism is an attitude to life, 
a moral temper, a passion, organized or per- 
sonal. 

Stand by the church. In these days when the 
church is buffeted by waves and wrapped in 
fog, cling to her, as the captain of the Eepublic 
clung, and, if necessary, go down with the ship. 
The church has given us civilization, at home 
and abroad. The church fired the morning gun 
of the American Revolution and built every col- 
lege and university, directly or indirectly, in 
the country. Emerson said, "The pulpits are 



PITTSBURG CONVENTION 223 

the springs of liberty." A new Protestantism, 
a new passion for the church of the living God 
and a new reverence for the deathless Bible will 
help us to be better men. We must be better 
men. There must be golden men before there 
is a golden age. Nothing can take the place 
of personal character. A good man is the 
pivot of the church. He is the pivot of the 
moral universe. We must first of all be Chris- 
tian men, men of God, charged with the Holy 
Spirit. 

I wish I could paint the home missionary pic- 
ture as I see it upon the canvas that involves 
this great continent of ours, fringed on either 
side with the surf of the sea. I would crowd into 
that canvas over eighty millions of people, with 
their teeming cities. I would put there the ten 
millions of negroes, the two hundred and fifty 
thousand Indians who have been driven back 
to the reservations, the two millions of chil- 
dren at work, the sixty to seventy thousand chil- 
dren who go hungry to bed every night in New 
York, the two millions in the United States who 
are underfed, the great streets filled with the 
unchurched masses and multitudes of souls go- 
ing to their ruin, the vice in high places and 
low places, and the saloon, falling like a tree 
in the forest with far resounding thunder. Oh, 
what a picture for the home missionary enter- 
prise of the church! Over it all I would put 
the canopy of our country's flag, that flag that 
was raised by our fathers and carried across 



224 THE PRESBYTERIAN BROTHERHOOD 

these plains and through the Golden Gate and 
planted on the islands of the distant Pacific, 
that dear banner of our fathers! men of 
America, " Arise, shine, for thy light is come, 
and the glory of the Lord is risen upon thee. ' ' 
(Applause.) 



THE BROTHERHOOD AND THE FOREIGN 

MISSIONARY PROGRAMME OF THE 

CHURCH 

BY ROBERT E. SPEER 

President Holt. — In introducing Dr. Rader 
I asked the question what combination could be 
more inspiring than that of Brotherhood and 
home missionary work. Without undertaking 
a comparison, I am sure you will agree that if 
there is an appeal surpassing that of America 
for Jesus Christ, it is the world for Jesus 
Christ. Under the inspiration of that appeal 
Mr. Robert E. Speer will speak on the "Brother- 
hood and the Foreign Missionary Programme 
of the Church." 

Mr. Speer. — There is a great deal of earnest 
discussion in our day as to whether the church, 
as such, has any right to have a social pro- 
gramme. We are told on one hand that that 
surely is her primary business, that her first 
aim should be to deal with man in his social re- 
lations, and to make the world a better place 
for him to live in. We are told on the other 
hand that the church has no business defining 
any social programme for herself, and that 
while social ends are desirable, and while benef- 
icent social results may flow from the church's 

225 



226 THE PRESBYTERIAN BROTHERHOOD 

work, her primary business is to deal, not with 
man in his social relations, but with man in his 
religions nature, and not to make the world a 
better place for men to live in, but to make bet- 
ter men to live in the world. There is a differ- 
ence of principle between these two antagoniz- 
ing views, and yet the difference is not altogether 
a difference of principle, it is surely also a dif- 
ference in proportion, a difference in emphasis, 
a difference in definition. 

And back of all the differences I suspect that 
all of us who are gathered here this evening be- 
lieve that whether or not the church has any 
right to have a social programme, Christianity, 
at least, is controlled and dominated by a great 
social principle, a principle that affects man 
in all his life and governs all his duties. How 
could it be otherwise in a religion whose Founder 
chose as the text for his first public discourse 
the great words from the prophet Isaiah, "The 
Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he hath 
anointed me to preach the gospel to the poor ; he 
hath sent me to heal the brokenhearted, to preach 
deliverance to the captives, and recovering of 
sight to the blind, to set at liberty them that 
are bruised, ' ' and among whose last words were, 
"Even the Son of man came not to be minis- 
tered unto, but to minister and to give his life 
a ransom for many;" and whose concluding 
principle was, "Thou shalt love thy neighbors 
better than thyself ; " in a religion whose great- 
est exponent after its Founder expressed what 



PITTSBURG CONVENTION 227 

was his most dominant conviction in his great 
Epistle to the Colossians in those words which 
declare that Christ erased the best-known and 
deepest distinctions that had prevailed in the 
world ; I mean the distinction between the sexes, 
between the citizen and the foreigner, between 
the master and the servant, when he declared 
that in Jesus Christ there was neither male nor 
female, citizen nor stranger, bond nor free. 

Right in the heart of our Christian faith lies 
embodied that great, universal, social principle ; 
a principle so universal as to cover the whole 
earth and reach every race, a principle so uni- 
versal as to penetrate all humanity and reach 
every soul. So that by virtue of the very social 
principle that lies at the heart of our Christian 
faith, whether or not she is entitled to have a 
social programme or not, it becomes her right 
and duty to have a missionary programme, a 
programme that will deal with the deepest life 
of every man, that will count as alien to the 
blessings and the ideals and the kingdom of the 
gospel no heart for which the Saviour died, 
nor any child born to look up to God and call 
him Father. 

Whatever we may think of the question as to 
whether or not the church has a right to a defi- 
nitely social programme, she has not only a 
right but a duty to have a distinctive mission- 
ary programme. Look in the mind of Jesus 
Christ. No church is a church of Jesus Christ 
that does not have in its mind what was in his 



228 THE PRESBYTERIAN BROTHERHOOD 

mind. The missionary programme that was in 
the mind of Christ was no afterthought. It was 
not a thing devised, wrought out of his actual 
work in his mission. The missionary pro- 
gramme of Christ lay in his mind in the be- 
ginning, and ruled his thought and his action 
from the first to the last. In that great sermon 
to which I referred a moment ago in the syna- 
gogue at Capernaum, he reminded that purely 
Jewish congregation to whom he preached that 
in the days of Elijah there had been many 
widows in Israel, but unto none of them was 
Elias sent, save to a widow of Sarepta, a city 
of Sidon. There were many lepers in Israel in 
Elisha's day, but only one was cleansed, a 
heathen leper, Naaman, a Syrian. From that 
day on to the last it was always a world of 
which our Lord was thinking, and a world of 
which our Lord was speaking. ' ' God so loved the 
world. ' ' "I will give . . . my flesh . . . for the 
life of the world. " " Go ye into all the world. ' ' 
In the last words he spoke to his friends, he 
uses his opportunity to set forth his mission- 
ary programme. "Ye shall be witnesses unto 
me both in Jerusalem, and in all Judaea, and in 
Samaria, and unto the uttermost part of the 
earth." A missionary programme lay in the 
mind of the founder of the Christian church, 
and the church is not his that does not have in 
its mind the same programme that was in his. 

The necessity of a missionary programme 
arises not only from the fact that there was 



PITTSBURG CONVENTION" 229 

such a programme in the mind of Christ, but 
from the simple and indisputable fact that such 
a programme lies in the nature of our Christian 
faith. Christianity is a universal good, it was 
glad tidings that were to be preached to all 
mankind and every creature. Every one of its 
great fundamental ideas is a universal idea. 
' ' One Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and 
Father of all, who is above all, and through all, 
and in you all." One Lord and one salvation 
for all mankind. You cannot break Christian- 
ity apart into fragments. You cannot state it 
in ethnic or provincial terms. The fundamental 
ideas are all of them universal ideas. A mis- 
sionary programme is written on the very in- 
ner nature of our Christian religion itself. We 
are bound, if we desire to keep our faith, if we 
desire to keep our Lord, to adopt as our own 
and to open our lives to the same great mis- 
sionary programme that lay in his mind, and 
lies in the very nature of the Christian faith. 

I think it is one of the most hopeful and sig- 
nificant signs of the times that no movement 
is able to escape this conviction. It is interest- 
ing to look back and note how the consciousness 
of the world character of Christianity has slowly 
forced itself upon the great religious movements 
of our day. When the Y. M. C. A. began it had 
no idea of passing outside the bounds of Chris- 
tian lands. It found, after a while, it was 
doomed to death unless it accepted its obliga- 
tion as a world-wide movement. When the 



230 THE PRESBYTERIAN BROTHERHOOD 

Christian Endeavor movement started it was 
satisfied to work within the bounds of Chris- 
tian lands. It found it could not live and escape 
the world obligation. We are seeing the Sun- 
day-school movement pass through the same 
transformation under our eyes to-day. We see 
it now at last expand its purposes and ideals 
in recognition of the law that any Christian 
movement that would live must bend itself 
beneath the missionary programme of the 
church. This Brotherhood movement must do 
the same thing. 

What is this missionary programme in rela- 
tion to this Brotherhood? Well, what was 
Christ's programme? This missionary pro- 
gramme as it lay in the mind of our Lord 
Jesus Christ was simply the universalism of the 
gospel. His programme included the proclama- 
tion of the gospel to the whole world of man, 
and the equal and fair offer of his grace to 
every human heart. Paul, who came imme- 
diately after him and took up his work, con- 
ceived the mission in the same great terms and 
never for a moment was his missionary work 
aim obscured. There is a wonderful passage 
at the close of the Epistle to the Eomans, in 
which he tells us what his programme was. "I 
have made it my aim, ' ' he uses an even stronger 
word, "I have made it my ambition not to du- 
plicate any man 's work, but to. preach the gospel 
where Christ had not been named, in order that 
every man might have an opportunity to hear. 



PITTSBURG CONVENTION 231 

I intend to come on to you in Rome, then unto 
Spain, for my purpose" — we can read the words 
just as plainly as if he had written them there — 
"my programme includes the evangelization of 
the entire Roman world." Save that he did 
not know as big a world as Christ did, for 
Christ's world included every human soul, the 
programme of each embraced the whole world 
of which he knew and contemplated the offer of 
Christ to every living soul. 

It must be that this should be the missionary 
programme of the church even to-day, namely, 
the free offer, the fair, equal offer of Christ to 
every man in the world. If it is not so all of 
the unique and sovereign claims go out of the 
gospel here at home. If every man in China 
does not need Christ, I do not need him. If 
I need him it is because every man needs him. 
If any man in the world needs him, he is en- 
titled to him. The simplest dictates of moral 
justice require us to share Christ with all 
humanity. 

Our fathers from the beginning have seen 
that this must be the real programme of the 
church. The idea of reaching the whole world 
with the gospel is no modern idea born in the 
enthusiasm of our own generation. The idea 
that the missionary programme of the church 
must be the programme gf Christ and of Paul 
was clearly seen by the great men who laid the 
foundations of our church. I have gone back 
again and again to read the lives of those men : 



232 THE PRESBYTERIAN BROTHERHOOD 

Swift, one of the prophetic characters at the 
beginning of the last century; Walter Lowrie, 
who resigned his place in the United States 
Senate to give himself to the missionary pro- 
gramme of the church; James W. Alexander 
and Nathan L. Bice, who gave the noblest ex- 
pression to the great ideal of our church as a 
missionary organization. These men saw what 
the missionary programme of the church must 
be just as clearly as we see it to-day. In 1831 
Dr. Bice first introduced those famous resolu- 
tions that did not prevail for six years, which 
accepted and embodied the missionary pro- 
gramme of our Lord as the dominant aim and 
ideal of our own church. His conception of 
the church was that the church itself was a mis- 
sionary organization, that she did not need to 
have inside of herself any auxiliary organiza- 
tions, which took on themselves the duty of the 
evangelization of the world — that was the 
church 's business ; and that every man who came 
into the church came by virtue of that member- 
ship into a missionary organization, and was for 
life a member of that organization and bound 
to do all that was in his power to fulfill the 
great programme of our Lord. 

We think of ourselves as men of the world 
vision, but I tell you, gentlemen, these men who 
passed away three generations ago had a world 
vision as large and as courageous as ours. 
When they planted their missions first of all on 
the west coast of Africa, it was with the ex- 



PITTSBURG CONVENTION 233 

press idea of going up into the far interior and 
claiming all Central Africa in Christ's name. 
When on the gorges and along the fringe of the 
coast of China, it was with no idea of staying 
there, it was with a clear realization of what 
the church's duty was. And when in those early 
days Lowrie got six thousand dollars together 
and joined with Louis Philippe and the British 
Museum in casting the first font of movable 
Chinese type made, it was with a clear prevision 
of what was to be done if one would fulfill our 
missionary programme. 

What we have been doing to-day is simply to 
make the programme more concrete. These 
figures in which we are accustomed now to state 
the missionary programme of the church are 
not the invention of any wild fancy of to-day; 
they are simply the effort to bring down into 
practical terms what our fathers before us saw 
from the beginning must be the church's main 
business in the world, namely, to carry out the 
programme of Christ and of the church to the 
last needy soul of all humanity. I am no more 
enamored of mathematics than you are. I 
don't believe you can state great problems of 
moral duty in arithmetical terms. Who could 
have stated the problems presented by the Civil 
War in such terms? But when it was over we 
were able to state the amount of our national 
indebtedness in practical terms, and we knew 
in practical terms how many priceless lives had 
been laid down to preserve the nation's unity, 



234 THE PRESBYTERIAN BROTHERHOOD 

and the long list of the dead was written in the 
nation's heart. Happy would that man have 
been, who, at the outset of that great strife, 
could have anticipated what it would have cost 
in money and how much in life. 

So, instead of smiling at those earnest men 
who are trying to state the missionary pro- 
gramme of the church in practical, definite 
terms, I think that they are simply feeling after 
the solution of the church 's missionary problem. 
It can be solved only by men and money and 
spiritual power. It is only as we reckon how 
many men we are going to need, and how much 
we are to require in order to send out these 
men in order that we may act as wise and true 
stewards of the grace of God and of the trust 
of God, that our programme to-day, which is 
the same old programme that our Lord cher- 
ished in his heart nineteen hundred years ago, 
can be wrought out. What does it call for? 
Simply an adequate effort to make Christ known 
in that section of the world for which our church 
is distinctly responsible. There are a great 
many other Christians, who are just as good 
Christians as we are, who have just as much 
of the gospel to give. We have our own definite 
responsibility, which we must bear and no one 
else can bear, and as far as I can see the mis- 
sionary programme of the church is just the 
simple, practical adoption of means to the end 
that we may discharge our great responsibility. 
And because there are souls at stake I see no 



PITTSBURG CONVENTION 235 

reason why we should deal with our problem 
with less sagacity, with less earnestness, with 
less consecration than if we were considering 
not souls, but gold or any other form of human 
wealth. 

Two practical and insistent questions present 
themselves with reference to the duty of this 
Brotherhood to this missionary programme of 
the church. The first of the two questions is 
this, are we to ignore and postpone our rela- 
tion to this problem and programme, or are we 
to face it now ? And I think we will not ignore 
and postpone it for two reasons. In the first 
place, because we are a Christian Brotherhood, 
and no organization is a Christian Brotherhood 
which does not desire to carry out what may 
have been in the mind of Christ, and more than 
that, which does not have for itself the same 
mind that was in Christ. We are no Christian 
organization if we do not desire to achieve the 
ends that Christ came to accomplish, and if 
those ends have not made themselves the domi- 
nant and controlling ends of our own life. 

The other reason why I think we will not 
ignore it is because we are a Christian Brother- 
hood. The base of our Brotherhood is human- 
ity, the stuff out of which our Brotherhood is 
to be wrought is all mankind. There is no such 
thing as a radical Brotherhood, no such thing as 
a narrow, isolated Brotherhood; the only true 
Brotherhood is all humanity, and we have no 
right to take on our lips the sacred name of 



236 THE PRESBYTERIAN BROTHERHOOD 

brother and call ourselves by that name if we 
are not to be brothers to every living man, and 
if the very idea of brotherhood does not carry 
with it the obligation to share in the mis- 
sionary programme, that will carry the great 
Brother of all to every brother for whom Christ 
died. We dare not postpone onr relationship to 
the church's missionary programme. 

The second question is, precisely what then 
is our relationship to be ? Now I do not believe 
this Brotherhood should be tied to any single 
line of Christian activity. I think those men 
have guided it wisely who have discouraged 
confining the Brotherhood activity to one line, 
whether at home or abroad. I should regret to 
see the Brotherhood made a distinctly foreign 
missionary organization. It is for the church 
to be its own missionary society, counting every 
member a sharer of the missionary programme 
of the organization. But what I believe the 
Brotherhood can do is this : in each local or- 
ganization there are certain practical services it 
can give. We can see to it that we ourselves 
are acquainted with what the opportunity of 
the Christian church is, and what the mission- 
ary enterprise in our own day is effecting and 
demanding of us,, and we can be its advocates 
among men. We can see to it that in each con- 
gregation there is an organization of the mis- 
sionary activities that will bring reality to them. 
We can make sure that in our own church the 
right share of duty is assumed and discharged. 



PITTSBURG CONVENTION 237 

We can see to it that in all gatherings where 
missions is the subject of consideration it shall 
receive a real, vital consideration. We can put 
life and power into prayer meetings. We can 
have missions presented from the pulpit, and we 
can see that the giving is done and done ade- 
quately. We can do that locally, each in his 
own place. 

I believe the Brotherhood as a whole can ful- 
fill its real function, namely, challenge every 
Christian man to realize what his obligation is 
as a Christian man, and quicken him to dis- 
charge that responsibility. As a Christian man 
of the church of Christ I am to share the mind 
of Christ in the way in which my own life is 
to be put into the doing of that. I am to con- 
ceive of my life as given to me merely to fulfill 
the great and pressing work of God. I can do 
that, and if I do that, if you and I will do that, 
the whole missionary problem of the church 
will have found its solution. If we will go away 
from this place to bring every man in the church 
each in his place to a willingness to perform 
the three great duties of a Christian man, 
namely, first of all to give his soul in prayer; 
second, to give his substance to the activities 
and ministries of the church, and third, to give 
his life in real, unwithholding service, the mis- 
sionary programme will be carried forward, if 
not out. 

You are never going to carry it out by build- 
ing up a scheme inside of the church. The mis- 



238 THE PRESBYTERIAN BROTHERHOOD 

sionary programme is not to be carried out by 
the large employment of professional agencies. 
In a series of resolutions in 1841, the Board in 
its fourth report set forth that the fundamental 
necessity of the enterprise in that day was a 
great company of men who would spontaneously 
and voluntarily take up their own responsibili- 
ties. That is our need now — men who will do, 
to put it concretely, what Mr. Sheldon Parks, 
of Cleveland, did when he went back from the 
Philadelphia convention and personally can- 
vassd for missions ; what Mr. J. D. Templeton 
is doing in Bloomington in giving time out- 
side his bank to tireless and ingenious promo- 
tion of missionary interests; what Mr. H. P. 
Crowell is doing in Illinois in financing a cam- 
paign to reach every member of the Synod of 
Illinois with the missionary obligation; what 
Mr. W. L. Amerman is doing in the Central 
Presbyterian Church in New York in planning 
for the heavy missionary responsibilities of that 
church as to a new plan in missions ; what Mr. 
A. E. Marling is doing in putting his own life 
as a force into the missionary propaganda, deal- 
ing with the men whom he meets on his way, to 
bring home to them what has been uppermost 
in his own life, the will of the Master. I am no 
great hand on formal organization. I believe in 
the living movement of the divine Spirit on the 
hearts of individuals. And the supreme neces- 
sity of the church to-day is not for more organi- 
zation, but for more spontaneous obedience, for 



PITTSBURG CONVENTION 239 

a larger company of men who will of their 
own free will follow Christ where he leads 
them. 

It may be that in previous generations it was 
not possible for the church to hope to realize 
that programme, undoubtedly it was so or it 
would have been realized. I believe that the 
time has now come for us to realize it. "Witness 
the growing spirit of unity in Christians of all 
kinds, which has led them to divide the world 
among them, so that each body takes its own 
distinctive share and responsibility, which binds 
them together in the unity of one great move- 
ment for the fulfillment of Christ's purpose 
toward all mankind; witness the unity of the 
church on the one hand, and on the other the 
great heaving, palpitating life of this stirring 
world. Witness the growing ascendency of the 
missionary ideal; witness our adequate re- 
sources. These things make possible for us 
what was not possible for our fathers. Now 
at last we can, if we will, carry out our Lord's 
programme, which is the programme of his 
church, and make his gospel known to every 
living soul. 

I want to bring it out of the air, near to the 
practical life and possibility of service to every 
man of us. What we are needing in the mission- 
ary enterprise is no unlimited sum of money. 
After all, a very small sum of money is needed. 
I do not believe our church would need more 
than six millions a year for a limited number 



240 THE PRESBYTERIAN BROTHERHOOD 

of years to do all we need to do as a church for 
the evangelization of the non-Christian world. 
Six millions is a very small sum. I have no 
doubt our church spends more than that every 
year on a dozen different weaknesses, foibles 
and tastes. It would not take many sacrifices 
to furnish all the money needed for the evan- 
gelization of the world. 

The work to be done is all very simple and 
clear. The outlines are already marked out, 
we simply need to fill in those outlines. For the 
most part, and immediately, we need only the 
adequate development of what we have begun. 
I could tell you of place after place in the mis- 
sion field where four hundred, five hundred or 
six hundred dollars would enable this particu- 
lar activity to double its effect. I think of in- 
stitution after institution where one or two men 
added would mean all the difference in the world 
between a full measure of success and only half 
a measure of success. The outside number of 
men and women needed is not very great, only 
five or six thousand. We would have thought 
it no large contribution to furnish five thou- 
sand men for the war out of the membership of 
the Presbyterian Church. 

Men, lying right out beyond the confines of 
what we have already under way are those 
great open doors inviting us, calling to us with 
the very voice of Christ. I do not understand 
how our church is able to resist that voice, call- 
ing to us, calling to us, from the needs of these 



PITTSBURG CONVENTION 241 

millions who are our responsibility, and ours 
alone. 

Is there anything indefinite or unintelligible 
about all this? It is all in our power easily to 
effect if we are willing. I believe it comes down 
to that at the last — if we are willing. And 
whether or not we are willing I believe to be a 
question as to whether or not we are really 
Christ's men. If we are, the thing will be done. 
The long desires of Christ will be satisfied in 
our day, and that patient expectancy of his that 
has lasted now all these many centuries, will 
at last come to its fruition, and the Saviour 
will have the world for which he has waited so 
long. 

You remember the word of Keshub Chunder 
Sen, the founder of the Progressive Somaj in 
India, a man who came near to the Saviour, 
near enough to touch the border of his garments 
although he never laid himself down on the faith. 
At the close of his life, in one of the last of his 
messages with which he stirred India, he de- 
clared, "None but Jesus, none but Jesus, none 
but Jesus is worthy to wear the diadem of India, 
and he shall have it." Shall he, my friends? 
If none but him is worthy to wear the diadem of 
India, who but him is worthy to wear the diadem 
of China and Africa and Japan and the islands 
of the sea? It was his purpose to acquire it. 
It is his will for the church that her men shall 
get it for him. Shall they do it? Oh, that we 
might go out from this place to-night to get it 



242 THE PRESBYTERIAN BROTHERHOOD 

for Mm and to cover with its glory forever the 
scars of his crown of thorns. Let us pray. 

PRAYER BY ROBERT E. SPEER 

Our Lord Jesus Christ, we pray thee to carry 
us this evening far beyond the pettiness and the 
selfishness and the narrowness of habit and 
thought, and the engrossment in worldly things, 
which have too much marked our lives. Bring 
us to-night, we pray thee, so near to thy great 
heart of love that broke for a world, that we 
shall catch its beats of desire and of purpose. 
Bring us, we pray thee, Saviour, where we may 
see thy face that looked abroad and beheld with 
compassion the sheep scattered as having no 
shepherd, that gazed far away beyond the reach 
of the sight of those who followed thee, toward 
those other sheep not of that fold, whom also 
thou must bring that there might be one flock 
and one shepherd. Oh, may our eyes be given 
to-night thy far vision! Bring through us to 
thy church a great, overwhelming passion for 
obedience to thy world-wide purpose. Lift us 
beyond all folly and unworth. Bring us into 
the depths and heights of perfect obedience to 
thee. Deal with us one by one as we go ; hold 
us each fast in thy companionship. Search our 
lives, we pray thee, by thy love and thy unselfish- 
ness, and expose to us, we entreat thee, anything 
we are valuing more highly than the things thou 
dost value most of all. And grant, we beseech 



PITTSBURG CONVENTION 243 

thee, that we and the church that we love may 
henceforth live for one object, and that the 
object for which thou didst live, Saviour, for the 
will of the Father and for all mankind. We ask 
it in thy name. Amen. 



THE BROTHERHOOD AND THE SUP- 
PORT OF OUR DENOMINATIONAL 
AGENCIES 

BY JUDGE JOHN M. GAUT 

President Holt. — The next topic that comes 
before us is one upon which it may not seem 
possible at first sight to develop great enthu- 
siasm, and yet I know of no more important 
subject that has come or will come before this 
convention than the loyal support of the agen- 
cies of our own church. It was foreordained 
that this should be discussed by a layman, and 
it is not inappropriate to recognize and welcome 
in the speaker one of the most loyal, wise, help- 
ful, patient and persistent laborers in the former 
Cumberland Church for the union which has 
now become an amalgamation so that the old 
lines are forever wiped out. I take great pleas- 
ure in introducing to you Judge John M. Gaut, 
of Tennessee, who will speak on "The Brother- 
hood and the Support of Our Denominational 
Agencies. ' ' 

Judge Gaut. — The General Assembly is the 
highest judicatory of the Presbyterian Church, 
and represents in one body all of the particu- 
lar churches. It possesses legislative, executive 
and judicial power. It is therefore responsible 

244 



PITTSBURG CONVENTION 245 

for all of the work which is undertaken by the 
church as a denomination. But it must act 
through agencies. It has therefore created 
more than twenty boards or permanent commit- 
tees to take immediate charge of different de- 
partments of the denominational work. 

These agencies naturally divide themselves 
into two classes. One class is devoted, wholly 
or partially, to promoting the efficiency of con- 
gregational work. The Boards of Education, 
Relief and Ministerial Sustentation, undertake 
to provide educated ministers for the churches 
and take care of these ministers when they be- 
come disabled, and care for the destitute widows 
and orphans of ministers. The Board of Church 
Erection aids weak congregations in erecting or 
improving their houses of worship. The Board 
of Publication and Sabbath-School Work pro- 
vides the churches with Christian and denomina- 
tional books, periodicals and other publications. 
The Missionary Boards, Home and Foreign, 
the Board of Missions for Freedmen, the Com- 
mittees on Temperance, on Work Among Sea- 
men and Soldiers, on Evangelistic Work and 
the Board of Publication and Sabbath-School 
Work in part, seek to Christianize the non- 
church-goers, at home and abroad — the people 
who will not attend church or have no Chris- 
tian churches to attend. Other boards and com- 
mittees have work which belongs partially to 
one class and partially to the other. 

These various boards are transacting an im- 



246 THE PRESBYTERIAN BROTHERHOOD 

mense business. The Home Boards and Com- 
mittees have in their employ about 2000 mis- 
sionaries and teachers. The Foreign Boards 
have 948 missionaries and 3129 native helpers. 
In the conduct of its Sunday-school missionary 
work the Board of Publication employs 166 mis- 
sionaries. Adding to these those in the employ 
of the Freedmen's Committee, this working 
force of the denomination is swelled to nearly 
7000 men and women, exclusive of all executive 
and clerical officers and employees. This im- 
mense force is literally encircling the globe in 
its operations. Their work is varied in its char- 
acter. The foreign work especially is beset 
with peculiar difficulties. It is conducted thou- 
sands of miles away from home, and mostly 
across the seas. The people who are the sub- 
jects of it speak foreign tongues. They have 
racial antipathies to strangers and are wedded 
to their heathen religions, traditional beliefs 
and established customs. These boards and 
committees are composed of perhaps 500 men 
and women who devote a large amount of time 
and intensified labor to this responsible work of 
the church. In saying this I speak from a per- 
sonal experience in such work of nearly forty 
years. They are paid nothing for their serv- 
ices and receive none too liberally the gratitude 
of the church and none too sparingly its criti- 
cisms. Gratitude to these faithful men and 
women, and those in their employ who are sac- 
rificing so much for the good of our church, 



PITTSBURG CONVENTION 247 

should alone prompt us to sustain them in their 
difficult undertakings. But a more potent rea- 
son than this is the magnitude and importance 
of the work for which they are made re- 
sponsible. The work is our work; work 
which we are divinely commanded to do — 
work of the highest consequence for time and 
eternity. 

What is being accomplished by these church 
agencies? During last year the Board of Edu- 
cation aided 809 students for the ministry. The 
Board of Relief took care of 1076 dependent 
ministers and widows, and orphan children of 
ministers. The Board of Church Erection has 
since 1845 — in 54 years — aided 8578 churches 
in the erection of their houses of worship, being 
an average of about 158 each year. For the 
last year the Home Board reports 7496 acces- 
sions to the church upon confession of faith and 
5461 accessions by letter, making in all 12,957 
accessions through the efforts of that board. 
The Board of Publication organized last year 
738 Sunday schools and revised 279 others. It 
provided an almost inconceivable quantity of 
the very finest of literature for the young peo- 
ple and older people of the church. The Board 
of Missions for Freedmen aided in sustaining 
240 ministers and 343 teachers. It has under its 
care 114 schools, containing 13,576 students. 
The Evangelistic Committee is endeavoring to 
draw the non-church-goers of this country into 
the sanctuary, or by services in tents and in the 



248 THE PRESBYTERIAN BROTHERHOOD 

open air, to carry the message to those who 
shrink from attending church. 

The Home Mission Boards meet the foreign 
immigrants who land on our shores at such sea- 
ports as Boston, New York, Baltimore and New 
Orleans, and through missionaries speaking 
their own tongues and through literature written 
in their own languages lay before them the duty 
and the privilege of becoming Christians. They 
follow these immigrants into the mining and 
lumber camps and elsewhere in the interior 
where they dwell in large numbers, speaking 
their own languages. Other boards and com- 
mittees do a similar work for the Indians and 
the negroes. 

The Department of Church and Labor is 
Christianizing the laboring classes and apply- 
ing the principles of Christianity to the strained 
relations between capital and labor. It is do- 
ing a work never hitherto attempted by any 
religious denomination. To this outline of the 
colossal work being done in this country must 
be added that which is performed by the Com- 
mittee on Temperance, the Committee on Chris- 
tian Work Among Seamen and Soldiers, and 
the Committee on Ministerial Sustentation Fund 
and other committees and boards which I have 
not the time to mention. 

The work abroad is being carried on mainly 
in China, Japan, Korea, Siam, India, the Philip- 
pine Islands, Africa, Persia, Syria, Cuba, Porto 
Rico, Alaska, the Canal Zone, Mexico, Brazil, 



PITTSBURG CONVENTION 249 

Chili, Colombia and Guatemala, and perhaps 
other countries or islands. The Foreign Boards 
are maintaining 1171 schools, containing 39,- 
616 students; 57 hospitals and dispensaries, in 
which there were treated last year 386,564 pa- 
tients. It is maintaining in foreign countries 
28 missions, 148 mission stations and 2062 out- 
stations. It circulated last year in these coun- 
tries literature printed in 21 languages and 
amounting to 159,261,403 pages. We have now 
in foreign countries 510 fully organized churches 
with 85,487 communicants. These are the gar- 
nered fruits of the harvest. 

What may be expected for the future? About 
fifty years ago the United States thrust the 
.doors of Japan ajar for the entry of the Chris- 
tian religion. Now the rulers of that country 
and its leaders in thought and action are so 
favorably inclined toward Christianity that we 
think we see the time not far in the future 
when the native church of Japan can, un- 
aided, complete the work of Christianizing that 
people. This achievement of itself furnishes 
encouragement for the future. But the times 
are now ripe for the American churches to 
make vigorous and rapid progress in Christian- 
izing the nations. The United States is esteemed 
by them as the country of free government, 
where the rights of men are recognized and 
protected. She is recognized as being the land 
of prosperity. She has not abused her power 
to trample upon the rights of others. When 



250 THE PRESBYTERIAN BROTHERHOOD 

she had the power to have taken the Philip- 
pines and Porto Eico without paying a dollar 
for them, and when the rules of war would have 
justified her in doing so, she bought them at the 
price of twenty million dollars of a nation 
which lay prostrate at her feet. Twice she has 
had the opportunity of laying the hand of her 
power upon Cuba, and annexing that island as 
part of her own possessions. She not only did 
not do this but has spent millions to main- 
tain Cuba's independence. At the close of the 
Boxer uprising, when other nations were pro- 
posing to parcel out a large part of China's ter- 
ritory, the United States promptly declined to 
take a foot of her soil. When our nation found 
that of the twenty-two million dollars received, 
from China for damages inflicted by that war 
on our citizens, only ten million dollars was 
necessary to pay the damages, she generously 
donated to China the remaining twelve million 
dollars, and China thereupon announced that 
the interest of the fund should be used in edu- 
cating Chinese young men in the colleges of 
this country. Another such act of generosity 
is not recorded in the history of the world. 
Who will venture to estimate the influence of 
these three or four hundred Chinese students, 
graduated in American colleges, who will re- 
turn each year to their own country to take, as 
they will, the leading part in the government 
of the empire, the management of her foreign 
relations and molding the sentiment of her peo- 



PITTSBURG CONVENTION 251 

pie? When will these leaders, won by such 
generosity, cease to look upon us with partial 
eyes, and hear with partial ears whatever we 
have to teach them? 

In the past, the American nation has not 
failed as a schoolmaster. The public school 
system of Japan was organized by her by 
Americans after American models. We taught 
her new methods in agriculture with American 
implements. We taught her mechanic arts, to 
construct railroads and build navies, to raise 
and equip armies, to wage war and to negotiate 
peace. Mussulmans, educated at an American 
college in Constantinople (on the Bosporus) 
have led the almost bloodless revolution in 
Turkey which has converted the worst despot- 
ism on earth into an embryo constitutional mon- 
archy. The navy of the United States has just 
completed the first trip ever made by a navy 
around the world. Our nation is to-day re- 
spected^ admired and trusted throughout the 
earth as never before. The world knows that 
we owe the most of what we are and what we 
have to the Christian religion. That religion 
therefore stands accredited to all the heathen 
nations, and especially to China and Japan, 
to the utmost limit of human commendation. 
Surely, we have become a world power in a 
higher sense than that of military or naval su- 
premacy. Amidst these favorable circum- 
stances, if we are true to our sacred obligations, 
what may we not, with the assured aid of the 



252 THE PRESBYTERIAN BROTHERHOOD 

divine Providence, expect to accomplish in the 
uplifting of mankind? .What part must we, as 
laymen, take in this inspiring work? From us 
will be expected at least the money with which 
to carry it on. These administrative agencies 
of the church must have each year not less than 
four million dollars. They have nothing to sell 
and no power to levy or collect taxes. They 
are dependent solely upon voluntary contribu- 
tions. They are carrying on an immense busi- 
ness with no capital except trust. So far as 
human instrumentalities are concerned a church 
is as powerless without money as is a nation. 

The layman of the church should give the 
general denominational work an intelligent sup- 
port; a support which comes of a knowledge 
of its character, its magnitude and its im- 
portance. We should know what the work con- 
sists of, where and how it is being conducted, 
what have been its successes and its failures, 
its future plans and prospects, and something 
of those who are conducting it. 

The greatest needs of this old world are in- 
tellect and conscience. They are the needs of 
all countries, all races and all classes. The 
South is suffering greatly to-day for lack of 
laborers intelligent enough to know how to do 
things and conscientious enough to do them 
faithfully. The lack of them has demoralized 
domestic service and is paralyzing agriculture 
and other industries. The economic need of the 
South is conspiring with higher causes to force 



PITTSBURG CONVENTION 253 

her to educate and Christianize the negroes. You 
of the North are suffering from a like industrial 
trouble. 

Living in accordance with the precepts of the 
Bible tends to produce health of body and mind. 
The church has carried the schoolbook along 
with the Bible wherever she has gone. Chris- 
tianity is the great patron of intellectuality and 
wise thoughtfulness. 

We all look forward with more or less con- 
fidence to that millennial period when the world 
will be free from war, when the nations will be 
free from corrupt government and society free 
from vice and suffering; but before we can 
reach that state of ideal bliss we must educate 
and Christianize. Some men are moral because 
it pays to be moral; because morality brings 
success in business and good standing in society. 
Other men, not oblivious to these considerations, 
do right for right's sake — because their con- 
sciences and their judgments approve the right 
and because right-doing brings self-respect. 
Still other men, with the full appreciation of 
the principles of natural ethics and of the good 
opinion of their fellow-men, are moved also by. 
the belief that the omniscient Euler of this 
world will punish vice and reward virtue. They 
are to some extent restrained from doing wrong 
because they are afraid to do wrong and are 
prompted to do right for the reward which it 
is expected to bring. 

But there are others, a multitude which God 



254 THE PRESBYTERIAN BROTHERHOOD 

alone can number, who, like the classes we have 
already named, believe that it is good policy to 
be moral, and love the right for right's sake 
and hate wrong for wrong's sake; and who, 
like them, fear God's wrath and hope for his 
favor, but who in addition to all of this look up 
to God as their Creator, their Preserver, their 
merciful Redeemer, their Comforter; who obey 
and serve him because they love him ; who trust 
him with a confiding trust which tranquilizes the 
troubled sea of this life and extends the bow of 
infallible promise across the clouded mystery 
of the grave. That this exalted obedience, this 
purified life and this redeeming trust may be 
perfected at home and extended over the en- 
tire earth is the thing for which the church is 
strenuously laboring and devoutly praying. 
money-makers of America, will we, against 
such a work as this, count up a few millions of 
dollars a year of the vanishing wealth of this 
perishable world? 



THE BROTHERHOOD AND THE BREAD- 
WINNER 

BY WAKKEN H. WILSON, PH.D. 

President Holt. — You have not failed to 
notice in Judge Gaut's eloquent address the 
reference to the church and labor. In each of 
our previous conventions we have been inspired 
and thrilled by a message from that department 
from one who is now engaged in work and study 
across the sea. It has come to pass with the 
growth of the department that Mr. Stelzle has 
needed and secured the aid of a man of dif- 
ferent type, yet singularly fitted to supplement 
him and to do a great work in the department 
of church and labor, and especially on the crit- 
ical problem of foreign immigration. Dr. War- 
ren H. Wilson, of New York, associate secre- 
tary of the Department of Church and Labor, 
will now address you on "The Brotherhood and 
the Breadwinner." 

Db. Wilson. — What shall I say to the 
Brotherhood of America, meeting in the city 
of breadwinners? What is the Brotherhood? 
and who is the breadwinner? 

The value of the Brotherhood is in its sim- 
plicity, its fraternity and its devotion. Now, 
simplicity is not easy to attain. The man who 

255 



256 THE PRESBYTERIAN BROTHERHOOD 

gains it learns the one thing to do in life, and 
doing that one thing, succeeds. The wise and 
mighty alone are simple. 

The first meaning of the Brotherhood in our 
churches is their attainment of simplicity. The 
work of our churches has become exceedingly 
complex. The support of the congregation and 
of the boards, and of the charities of the 'com- 
munity is a great burden. Against this com- 
plexity the Brotherhood has been a refuge — a 
cave of hiding. There we meet men only. The 
children with their needs, the ladies with the 
conventions, are not there. 

Home and foreign missions and the other 
six boards and half-score charities are not there. 
The Brotherhood seeks to find within the church 
what the early church always offers to its found- 
ers — a simple religion, a union of brothers. 

The value of simplicity in these days of com- 
plex activity is illustrated by the Scotchman 
who was moving. He determined to move to 
his new house with care as well as economy. 
So he carried his furniture by hand. He was 
thus transporting the big clock, a "grand- 
father 's clock, ' ' about seven feet high. He had 
carried it on his back till it wearied him, and 
then he took it in his arms and with a straddling, 
waddling gait, "warkling" as the Scotch say, 
he got it as far down the village street as the 
house of the town philosopher, where he again 
rested. The philosopher studied him calmly, 
took his pipe out of his mouth and said, "Mon, 



PITTSBUKG CONVENTION 257 

wad ye no be better wi' a watch ?" The 
Brotherhood has the value in the church of a 
watch, instead of all the many clocks which 
keep God's time in the church. 

The second value of the Brotherhood is its 
fraternity. This is its essence. Let no ad- 
dresses of this convention, brothers, win you 
away from the joy of fellow-feeling which comes 
over you when you enter the church parlors on 
the night of the Brotherhood and greet there 
the men of the church, the comrades in worship 
and service. This fellow-feeling is not the rar- 
est of our religious experiences, but it is the 
deepest. No religious work should ever be per- 
mitted to spoil it, no piety to discredit it. To 
love any group of God's children simply is re- 
ligion. He who does it has known God the 
Father. 

Men and brothers, here is the root of the mat- 
ter: The fellow-feeling between men is the 
Brotherhood. That club or guild which has it 
not cannot compensate by committees or activi- 
ties or reports for its absence. In this we 
realize our religion. It is hard to love a whole 
congregation. People go to church service ac- 
cording as they love the minister, but in the 
Brotherhood they realize the love of brothers 
as equals and comrades. 

Do not tell me this is wrong, or that we should 
love the heathen afar off as well as the man in 
the next block. If I do not love the man who 
goes to church with me I will never love the 



258 THE PRESBYTERIAN BROTHERHOOD • 

heathen in China or the poor in the slums. The 
Brotherhood makes Christian love real to me. 

Third, the Brotherhood lives in devotion. 
The meeting is opened with prayer and song. 
The Brotherhood does not apologize for its re- 
ligion. It is a Christian family of men. While 
it is not a prayer meeting, it worships and prays. 

So much for the Brotherhood. Now, who is 
the breadwinner? First of all, he is not a fail- 
ure in life. The American workingman is not 
a second-rater. He is another type of Ameri- 
can from the business man — different from the 
scholar, for he does not value higher education. 
The breadwinner is the American who is created 
by two, yes, three, conditions. First, by the fact 
that the western free lands are exhausted. 
Americans of the future are not to be land-own- 
ers, but dwellers in factory towns and industrial 
cities. The immigrants of the past ten years, 
eight millions from southern Europe, have gone 
into these. They are to be breadwinners, wage- 
earners. They will not dwell apart, solitary 
families upon broad acres, but in close fraternal 
unions they will be a population who seek to 
live a fraternal, naturally helpful life. They 
will not be individualists, but men and families 
of a social spirit. 

Second, the breadwinner is made such by the 
machine. Everything in America is made by 
the machine. 

We are doing in God's providence a terrific 
thing on this continent for the first time in his- 



PITTSBURG CONVENTION 259 

tory. We are making of all these peoples one 
people. The public school is a machine for the 
education of the children of all nations in Ameri- 
canism. The labor union is a machine which 
controls and molds the foreign adult. The bal- 
lot is a machine for the equalization of all hu- 
man dignities. The theater is a machine for 
the cultivation and expression of common feel- 
ings. 

The success of American manufacture of men 
is a great and fearful thing. The consul at 
Jerusalem, who has resided abroad all his life, 
says that a visit to the States impresses him 
with one thing above all, that in America we 
are making eighty million people wear the same 
clothes and speak the same language. Nowhere 
else on earth is that done. 

Is it any wonder then that the factory is a 
machine for making the breadwinner? Its uni- 
formity and monotony discipline, while they 
exhaust, his feeling and thought. Its organiza- 
tion frames his conditions of life, dictates 
his residence and prescribes his companion- 
ships. Its small financial rewards compel mutual 
and fraternal organization. 

Therefore the workingman to-day knows the 
life of brotherhood. He lives by fraternal sup- 
port. His labor union and his mutual benefit 
society are his bank account. A stonecutter in 
New York said to me with emphasis : "I belong 
to the best insurance company on earth. It is 
the stonecutters' union. It cares for me if T 



260 THE PRESBYTERIAN BROTHERHOOD 

am sick and for my wife if I die, and it never 
protests my claims, nor do I need a lawyer to 
collect my claim." 

The life of the breadwinner seeks also sim- 
plicity. The burden of self-support in our time, 
for men and families who are near the margin, 
is so great that the workingman seeks the one 
thing which will solve it and lift his burden. 
Too often he thinks the church, as one of our 
ministers frames it, " a luxury, not a necessity. ' ' 
It is for the Brotherhood to make the church a 
necessity to the breadwinner who must seek for 
the necessities of life. 

The third fact in the real life of the bread- 
winner is the problem of daily bread. Now some 
men have got away from daily bread. They have 
bread enough for a year and are not anxious 
for to-morrow. They are working for year 
after next. Some men have bread enough for 
a hundred years. Some millionaires are con- 
cerned about savings which will put them and 
their children's children beyond hunger for a 
thousand years. It makes a great spiritual dif- 
ference to a man whether he is concerned about 
bread for a century, or bread for a millennium, 
or bread for a day. The problem of daily bread 
is a religious problem. And the life of the work- 
ingman is a religious life. He may be working 
for material things, but material things for wife 
and child are spiritual things. The spiritual 
soul in them is bigger than the material body. 
They are full of love and of duty to overflowing. 



PITTSBURG CONVENTION 261 

Jesus Christ realized and taught the religion 
of daily bread. He puts it first in the petitions 
of the Lord's Prayer, "Give us this day our 
daily bread, ' ' and he began his Sermon on the 
Mount with a statement that to be poor is to be 
religious. "Blessed be ye poor: for yours is 
the kingdom of God." Jesus was a breadwin- 
ner, and the workingman has no difficulty with 
the Sermon on the Mount. 

The breadwinner is near at hand to-day chal- 
lenging the church. He knocks at the door of 
the Brotherhood. First of all he demands that 
religion be simplified. His are the elementary 
experiences. He knows the daily meaning of 
the experiences referred to in the Beatitudes. 
Jesus said, "Blessed be ye poor." He is poor. 
Jesus said, "Blessed be ye who mourn." He 
mourns. Jesus said, "Blessed are ye that 
hunger. ' ' He has no store against hunger. He 
has stood in the bread line. Jesus said, "Blessed 
are ye who are ostracised," and he feels that 
society shuts him out because of his overalls and 
his greasy knuckles and sweaty palms. He de- 
mands of us that religion be kept in its ele- 
mental simplicity, in which all men may share, 
rather than expressed in choir music and ser- 
monic essays and high-priced pews. 

You know, brothers, we confront in all life the 
tendency to play up those experiences which but 
few can share with us. We have a conception 
of the ballot in America at present which makes 
it something that a negro cannot share in. We 



262 THE PRESBYTERIAN BROTHERHOOD 

have a notion of education in our cities which 
puts the highest-paid teacher in the grades to 
which only a few pupils attain. We value 
most that music which is too fine for common 
men. We prefer those places of residence to 
which only a few like ourselves can come. We 
prefer those preachers who appeal only to the 
most educated. 

The breadwinner declares to us that such 
gospel of culture is not religion. Such spirit- 
uality may be good for monks, but not for men. 
If the church is to welcome home to her bosom 
the workingmen of the cities, not one in ten of 
whom go to any church, the church must renew 
the simplicity of her youth. She must preach 
the gospel to sorrow and to hunger and to pov- 
erty. The gospel for these experiences is Chris- 
tianity. Said a certain great leader — I think it 
was Moody — to some learned preacher: "Put 
the gospel where the lambs can nibble at it, and 
where the calves of the herd can secure it. Most 
of you men set it so high that the giraffes can- 
not reach it." 

The challenge of the breadwinner to the 
church to-day is for a more brotherly spirit. 
This fellow-feeling which enters into our 
Brotherhood as a factor is the very life of the 
working poor. It is a practice of what we 
preach. I know two mechanics, of whom one 
has died this past year. Thirty years ago they 
met, lowly foreigners, in a consul's office of a 
seacoast city, and were drawn into conversa- 



PITTSBURG CONVENTION 263 

tion in the sweet tongue of the home country. 
In the swift progress of such an acquaintance 
they soon found that one, the carpenter, a broad- 
shouldered, lusty fellow, of thick neck and 
powerful build, was without work and hungry. 
The other, a painter, an artist, slender, deli- 
cate of build, fine of feature, said, "Why, I 
have a job and I have a return ticket to my 
town, and I have five dollars in cash. ' ' The five 
dollars changed hands with a freedom that men 
never know who do not know the meaning of 
the words "daily bread' ' in the Lord's Prayer, 
or "Blessed are the poor," in the Beatitudes. 
The burly carpenter got breakfast and a job that 
morning, and he has gone in the strength of that 
meat till this day. 

Do you wonder that later, when the painter, 
the artist, was still poor, when his wife went 
mad, when two of his children died, that the 
man with whom he had divided his living, 
divided with him for years his home? He took 
him to his house, for seventeen years, till the 
wife came from an asylum, till his other chil- 
dren were able to earn, and what belonged to 
one man was for the other also. 

Such fraternity as this is the very life of 
the working poor. It is the practice of a re- 
ligion of daily bread, of which Jesus Christ is 
the teacher and the Sermon on the Mount is 
the simple, frank explanation. 

The challenge of the breadwinner comes to us 
from those whose lives are not in their control. 



264 THE PRESBYTERIAN BROTHERHOOD 

Do you complain that they do not come to 
church? Not one member in five in one of our 
great cities is a workingman. I answer that 
their life is under a rule of necessity. They 
seek only necessities. They are ruled by the 
iron hand of need. 

They are like an army and salute us as they 
pass. Of this army of six million workingmen 
in America, five hundred thousand are killed or 
injured every year by machinery, by railroad 
cars, in mines or in the forests. Half a million 
fall! Why, that is more than the average of 
killed and injured in the Civil War, plus the 
average of killed and injured in the Russo- 
Japanese War. American industry is more de- 
structive than the progress of two great wars 
at once! 

The gladiators used to salute the Caesars as 
they entered the arena, "We who are about to 
die salute you!" The breadwinner challenges 
the church, "We who know the sorrow and 
hunger, the poverty and ostracism of the Beati- 
tudes, salute you." 

As I have thought upon this matter, brothers, 
I have come to believe that if this men's move- 
ment within and without the church goes on 
much longer we will have to have a wholly new 
Christianity taught and lived. First it will be 
a religion of daily bread. 

Some men tell us that what we need is a 
deeper sense of sin. But before sin in the 
order of Christ's teaching is life. Simpler than 



PITTSBURG CONVENTION 265 

redemption is providence. We must have a re- 
ligion which is concerned with the universal 
wants and passions of mankind. Spirituality 
that is too high and too good for the man who 
is seeking to support a family is spirituality for 
giraffes, not for the sheep of God's flock. 

Second, we must make our churches serve the 
whole community. There must be no selecting 
of our members. Men must not join one 
church to be with " their own kind of folks," but 
because of the service of the church to that whole 
people. Such a church will not long stand 
closed, not one single day. The lights shall 
shine in her windows every night. Her stained 
glass and her pipe organ shall be for the daily 
culture of all men. She shall invade the days 
of the week, and the day of rest shall not be as 
now, her day of work, but her day of worship. 

Third, the church shall be the mouthpiece of 
the poor. Oh, the silent people of our cities! 
How many there are who are not seen and heard 
in all the roar of traffic, the crying of news- 
papers, the torrent of print ! In the prisons and 
asylums are many, in the hospitals are many 
whom we never see or hear. 

But above all, voiceless in America, are the 
working classes. They have their own mode of 
life, which their employer knows not of, and so 
far as he understands their standards, he is im- 
patient of them. They have poets who sing for 
them alone, orators who speak for them and 
their three hundred papers published in order 



266 THE PRESBYTERIAN- BROTHERHOOD 

to commemorate and circulate their ideas, all 
unknown to the reading rooms. 

Not known to yon, either, are the churches 
which are ministering to the poor. When a 
church goes for the poor it generally surren- 
ders the fame which comes to the church on the 
avenue. But in Philadelphia, in Cincinnati, New 
York and Chicago are churches which have 
built themselves into the life of those cities for 
good or ill forever. 

With the intensified social life the individual 
sinks, and the class or group rises in importance. 
The gospel for the days to come will be a social 
gospel. It shall be a gospel, not of megaphone 
eloquence, but of touch and of loving contact. 

The church for the breadwinner must also 
preach justice, justice which is logically derived 
from the doctrine of daily bread, the doctrine 
of providence. What God has provided for all 
must not be seized by a few. We need a new 
teaching of property. The minister who shall 
speak to the poor in these days must be fear- 
less in his respect for the private property of 
God and for the use to which God intended it. 
He must not be silent about graft arid he must 
be afraid of no one. He had better make the 
mistake of being too bold than of being too cau- 
tious. He must speak before the courts act, and 
there shall be no district attorney more prompt 
than he to arraign public malefactors. 

Brethren, let us now no longer preach the 
doctrine which divides, but that which unites all 



PITTSBURG CONVENTION 267 

Christian men. Let us preach the purpose of 
God in Christ. It lies like a seed in all hearts. 
Theories as to the person of Christ have divided 
us, obedience as to the will of Christ shall unite 
us. We are made one by obeying and acting, 
but we have been made to differ by too much 
philosophy. 

Last of all, when the Brotherhood reaches 
an arm to encircle the breadwinner we shall 
solve the problem of our cities. Then men 
within our churches and without who love God 
shall meet in simplicity. Their common fra- 
ternal spirit will unite them. The devotion of 
our Brotherhoods shall make them to be one 
in worship and in service of Christ. The quest 
of the breadwinner will solve the problem of 
the city. For the toiler in the city makes up 
its multitudes and determines its character. 



THE BROTHERHOOD AND THE BIBLE 

BY PROFESSOR EDWARD MACK, D.D. 

President Holt. — Gentlemen, yon will not 
expect from me a enlogy of the Bible. It was 
in Cincinnati, I believe, that a candidate for 
naturalization was badly confused by the ques- 
tion of the examining judge, whether he ap- 
proved the Constitution of the United States; 
but after a short conference with his ward boss 
in the corridor returned and assured the court 
that he had had the Constitution explained to 
him and was delighted with it. The Brother- 
hood is founded upon the Bible. It originated, 
humanly speaking, in men's Bible classes, and 
Bible study still is, and doubtless will always 
remain one of the corner stones of the move- 
ment. It would be a strange Brotherhood pro- 
gramme that should omit the consideration of 
this subject ; and one whom we learned to know 
and love for his person and for his works at 
Cincinnati, Professor Edward Mack, of Lane 
Seminary, will now address us on "The Brother- 
hood and the Bible." 

Dr. Mack. — The most noticeable and encour- 
aging feature of our Brotherhood is its interest 
in Bible study. In the hearts of our men there 
is abiding faith in the Bible. For it they have a 

268 



PITTSBURG CONVENTION 269 

deep and tender love, passing the love of woman. 
Oppositions have arisen, foundations have been 
assailed, every doubt has been insinuated, but 
the old love for the old book has not been lost. 
While we may not understand all the meaning 
of the phrase, we men still hold the Bible to 
be " God's word." 

The Brotherhood movement is a great, new 
experience both for our own church and our 
age. While it will be permanent and increas- 
ing, for it is the expression of a new and living 
consciousness, it has not yet taken shape in its 
permanent forms. It is important, then, that 
we have great regard for its foundation-laying 
just now, remembering the adage, which runs, 
" First things first.' ' It is of the utmost im- 
portance in such a convention, having such a 
central theme as it has set before itself, that we 
consider the Brotherhood's relation to Bible 
study. 

The men of the Brotherhood are interested 
in the Bible. Many, possibly the majority, of 
our local chapters have had their beginnings in 
the Bible class. I have found, in service which 
takes me into many churches, that most of them 
have Bible classes for men, or that it is not dif- 
ficult to organize men for Bible study. Such 
interest is to be expected from the nature of 
the movement and from the nature of the book ; 
for it is a book by men, a book for men, a book 
that charms and controls men. While it is God- 
given, it is also a man's book, containing the 



270 THE PRESBYTERIAN BROTHERHOOD 

record of manly men, appealing to the highest 
and best in men. 

The call and opportunity of Christian man- 
hood is to restore the Bible to its rightful place 
in the reverent affection and loyal allegiance of 
all men. The disuse into which the Bible has 
fallen, and the resulting woeful and shameful 
ignorance, is amazing and calamitous. Our col- 
lege men have ignored the richest literature of 
the ages, our public men have been unacquainted 
with the most potent factor in moral perception 
and control ; our business men have been in cul- 
pable ignorance of the only safe guide in all 
matters of right and truth; "our economists, 
prodigal of their theories and dogmas, have 
seemed to scarcely know that such a book as 
the Bible exists." (Hitchens, "The Bible and 
Labor. ") To the Brotherhood now comes the 
call to help remove the reproach of this igno- 
rance. 

It is not a hard thing that men should study 
the Bible. Just the knowledge of it would be 
ample reward, for the most important questions 
of our modern times involve the Bible. Such 
scientific and religious subjects as ethnology, 
race-beginnings, the unity of the race, the origin 
and development of religion, now matters of 
common interest, are authoritatively discussed 
in its pages ; no other books speak to us with 
such authority. We are to-day particularly in- 
terested in matters of social reform and of moral 
relationship. These are questions on which the 



PITTSBURG CONVENTION 271 

Bible speaks with peculiar power, for proof of 
which I only need refer you to the teachings of 
the prophets and to the words of our Master. 
The philosophy to-day is moving along lines of 
practical psychological interest; and it is sur- 
prising how the conclusions of modern psy- 
chology, as they are announced from time to 
time, are seen to have formed long ago simple 
and abiding formulation in the teachings of 
this ancient book. All Christian men are inter- 
ested in the revival of conscience, in juster in- 
dustrial conditions, in the higher ideal of man- 
hood; and in them all our Bible is the best 
guide and inspiration. 

The Bible is a book of marvels. There is the 
marvel of its origin. Two thousand years, 
which means sixty generations, including every 
form of human society, contributed to its pro- 
duction; nevertheless, there is not a break in 
the harmony and consistency of its message. 
There is the marvel of its preservation, for it 
survived the wreck of kingdoms, the shifting of 
empire-centers, the death of civilizations, resist- 
ing the attacks of many enemies, while litera- 
tures of mightier peoples perished, or were 
buried for millenniums. It did survive, it has 
been continuously used, while other books were 
forgotten, because of its divine origin, and its 
supreme authority. The marvel also of its 
universality. For it is the book of no particu- 
lar age nor nation, but of the human race and 
of the heart. No other book gives itself, like 



272 THE PRESBYTERIAN BROTHERHOOD 

this one, to be translated into the language and 
very life of every race and age. And last of all, 
there is the marvel of its accuracy, for not one 
false statement has ever been proved against it. 
I might speak for unlimited time of the remark- 
able verifications of its history, its geography, 
its philosophy; I hesitate not to challenge any 
proof of error against it. This is our Bible: 
God's book, and man's also, the moral and 
spiritual quickener of the ages. 

But it is not merely interesting to study the 
Bible; there is imperative need for thorough 
knowledge of it. Days have now come upon us, 
which, by their perplexing problems, try the 
faith of our best men. There is in all hearts 
the feeling of great need; men are not satis- 
fied to live as they are, and in conditions as 
they now are. We know that there is wrong, 
and our human hearts cry out for the right; 
we see suffering, and our 'soul of sympathy 
seeks some way of help. It is not necessary 
here to review the problems of our country's 
religious life. They are problems that press for 
immediate solution, and the Brotherhood is 
pledged to the service of Christ and country in 
the solution of these very problems. So may 
we best defend our land from folly and ill. 
Now, this will require more than human wisdom. 
There is a book that fails not. In the changing 
of thought with the passing of time this book 
changes not; its truth abides; its programme 
of life remains constant. The Brotherhood 



PITTSBURG CONVENTION 273 

must stand by,- or fall without, the knowledge 
of the Bible. * 

For illustration, we may take the most per- 
plexing question now before our country, which 
has been indicated so often in this convention, 
the labor question, affecting our commercial and 
industrial development, while at the same time 
it is putting to the test the wisdom and the 
piety of our churches. In this, as in other issues 
between man and man, the Bible has the indis- 
pensable message. Lawgiver and prophet, Mes- 
siah and apostles have spoken for our guidance ; 
and this problem, which concerns all the chil- 
dren of God, cannot be settled until it is settled 
according to the teachings and the will of God. 
It would help much if such parts of the Bible 
as the books of Deuteronomy and Proverbs and 
Amos, the Gospels of Jesus and the closing 
chapters of Romans were included in the cur- 
riculum of all commercial and industrial educa- 
tion. 

There is another question of profound inter- 
est to modern times which we must consider : the 
question of the future life. Little has been said 
about it in this convention, because we have 
been occupied with the issues which are "prac- 
tical." But what can be of more practical in- 
terest and of greater value than immortality? 
Every planet that moves in concert with our 
earth around our solar center affects through 
its inconceivable distances our life here. The 
hereafter has its incalculable influences, al- 



274 THE PRESBYTERIAN BROTHERHOOD 

though it may seem so far away, on every step 
of our earthly journey. All the denials of 
materialism, all the gloom of agnosticism, all 
the agonizings of spiritism, would have been 
spared if men had only been willing to go to the 
old book, to heed Him who spake as never man 
spake, as he says to us, "In my Father's house 
are many mansions : if it were not so, I would 
have told you. ' ' 

I suppose you are expecting from me some 
word about method of Bible study. But I am 
not so sure that this is necessary. The main 
issue is that the Bible be studied, leaving the 
question of methods, as we leave other matters 
of local administration, to be decided by the 
needs and conditions of local organizations. 
However, there are three questions which might 
be raised here concerning organization, pro- 
gramme and leadership. 

It is best, if possible, that Bible classes be 
formed in connection with Sunday schools ; and 
many have been formed and are being main- 
tained with signal success. I have in mind such 
a class in a comparatively small suburban 
church, a class having an average attendance 
of thirty, where formerly there was nothing at 
all. The interest is eager, and recently a special 
room was provided for its meetings. This can 
be duplicated in almost any church, and the best 
men of the community brought into Bible study. 
By such classes the door is opened into church 
activities. Bible class men go into the prayer 



PITTSBURG CONVENTION 275 

meeting to lead in prayer and to testify; they 
supply the long-realized need for men as teach- 
ers in our Sunday schools; eventually these 
classes will furnish trained spiritual men for 
office-bearing in our churches. 

If for any reasons it be found impracticable 
to organize classes in connection with the Sun- 
day school, leagues may be found to meet on 
week days in order, among other good purposes* 
to advance systematic Bible study. In churches 
which have no Sunday-evening preaching serv- 
ices it has been found to be both feasible and 
desirable to have a men's meeting for lectures 
on Bible themes. 

An unanswered question is the system, or 
programme, of study. It is certainly to be said 
that there is now no series or outline of studies 
altogether satisfactory. Some use the Interna- 
tional lessons, others find them inadequate, and 
so far as I can discover, there is no general 
unanimity of plan or opinion. Under ideal con- 
ditions, plain, direct, consecutive study of the 
Bible text would be best. But we are not in the 
age of the ideal. Even well-meaning men must 
have guidance and must receive inspiration. A 
simple, thorough and interesting course of study 
for men would be a boon to the Brotherhood. 
Only let it be the study of the Bible, not merely 
about the Bible. 

Some one has asked if modern criticism has 
not wrought such change in men's attitude 
toward the Bible that there must be radical 



276 THE PRESBYTERIAN BROTHERHOOD 

changes in the method and content of instruction 
for intelligent men. On the contrary, I am sure 
that the assured results of scientific criticism 
are by far not so subversive nor revolutionary 
as may often be supposed. While men are fairly 
well informed about higher criticism, they are 
remarkably indifferent to it. Our modern man 
is altogether practical. He sees that the results 
are very much the same from either method of 
investigation. Even if there be two Isaiahs the 
finished results of the two prophetic activities 
is the identical book we now have. And when 
your trained critic has analyzed the books of 
Moses into their constituent elements, he must 
in the end show how these elements came into 
their present form, and then take the old book 
just as it lies before u$. It is the old, old story 
of the ten thousand men who marched up the 
hill and then marched down again. Our prac- 
tical Brotherhood men, realizing this, are more 
intent upon the study of the Bible as it is, than 
upon the investigation and debate of critical 
methods, and the acceptance of so-called "as- 
sured results." And, in all honesty, I may 
confess that I have ever-increasing doubts about 
the wonderful benefits of the higher criticism. 
There have been beneficial results; one is the 
stimulus of a vigorous and intelligent opposi- 
tion. But the greatest result of a nationalistic 
criticism has been its failures ; for if it had 
proved all that it had proposed to prove we 
would have been of all men most miserable. In 



PITTSBURG CONVENTION 277 

a word, the largest and most blessed result of 
criticism is the fact that the Bible has so glori- 
ously survived its critics. Then let us give to 
men the old-fashioned book that abides forever. 
The Brotherhood does not have to provide its 
own literature or constitutions ; the Bible is all 
this to the Brotherhood now. 

A very practical and difficult problem is the 
Bible class leader or teacher. Ordinarily the 
pastor is not the man for this service. There 
may be more freedom and more practical re- 
sults under a leader who in a sense is not pro- 
fessional. Happy the church which possesses 
an enthusiastic Bible man, ' ' apt to teach, ' ' thor- 
oughly saturated with the word. It is worth 
while considering if we may not provide for the 
training of such class leaders, to be known as 
"Bible men," like the men of Wyclif 's training, 
who by teaching men the Bible laid the founda- 
tion of the English Beformation and of our 
Anglo-Saxon liberties. 

The problems are far from solved; we are 
not doing all we might for Bible study; the 
methods and the contents of instruction may be 
unsatisfactory. And yet the Bible is being 
studied more than ever before, and it will be 
increasingly so. Now this is a force in the 
church and in modern life which must be reck- 
oned upon. The word of God cannot enter into 
men's lives to be passive or negative. "Thy 
word have I hid in mine heart, that I might not 
sin against thee." The sanctifying power of 



278 THE PRESBYTERIAN BROTHERHOOD 

the Bible must be felt in our social life. Very 
early it will develop better and more effective 
men for our church service, and gradually it 
must influence and eventually it must transform 
the thought and the conduct of our manhood. 
"As the rain Cometh down, and the snow from 
heaven, and returneth not thither, but watereth 
the earth, and maketh it bring forth and bud, 
that it may give seed to the sower, and bread 
to the eater: so shall my word be that goeth 
forth out of my mouth : it shall not return unto 
me void, but it shall accomplish that which I 
please, and it shall prosper in the thing whereto 
I sent it." 

If the Brotherhood has done no other thing 
it has done invaluable service in quickening in- 
terest in Bible study. If it were to cease to 
exist to-day yet would its brief life not be in 
vain; this, that it has honored God's word and 
restored it to its place in the confidence and af- 
fection of men, would more than justify its 
existence. 



THE BROTHERHOOD AND THE BOY 

BY PRINCIPAL WILLIAM MATHER LEWIS 

President Holt. — That Christian work by 
and for boys commands the earnest and unani- 
mous sympathy of Brotherhood men must be 
evident to anyone who has read the report of 
the Council, and listened to the resolutions of- 
fered and adopted, and heard the constant ref- 
erences to the subject in the discussions on the 
floor of the convention, and noticed the call for 
a special conference on boys' work at the close 
of this afternoon's session, under the leadership 
of the secretary for Boys' Work and Physical 
Director of this mighty First Church of Pitts- 
burg — there is tremendous significance in the 
mere existence of a church worker with such a 
title. There is a peculiar fitness in having this 
subject discussed here by one who occupies per- 
haps the closest and most influential relation to 
boys that exists outside of the home- — the prin- 
cipal of a great boys' school. And if you will 
pardon a personal allusion, I have special pleas- 
ure in introducing the speaker, first, because he 
presides over the dear old institution where I 
made my preparation for college forty years 
ago ; and second, because he is the son of a 
Presbyterian minister beloved for years through- 
out and beyond the State of Illinois, and fully 
worthy of the description given to me to-day 

279 . 



280 THE PRESBYTERIAN BROTHERHOOD 

by one of his former parishioners as "the 
noblest man that God ever made," Rev. James 
Lewis, late of Joliet, whose son, William Mather 
Lewis, head master of Lake Forest Academy, 
will now address us on "The Brotherhood and 
the Boy." 

Mr. Lewis. — The questions suggested by my 
subject, "The Brotherhood and the Boy," are 
of tremendous importance on account of the 
fact that what the Brotherhood makes the boy 
to-day, the boy will make the Brotherhood to- 
morrow. 

President Roosevelt furnishes our funda- 
mental thought when he says: "If you are go- 
ing to do anything permanent for the average 
man you have got to begin before he is a man. 
The chance of success lies in working with the 
boy and not with the man." The words of the 
church dignitary, who said, "Give me the boy 
until he is ten and I care not who has the 
man," are almost too trite to repeat. 

If we scan our church records we find that the 
majority of Christian men come to a decision 
before they are eighteen years of age. That 
evil is also early active is witnessed by the fact 
that the criminal dockets of our cities are filled 
with the names of mere boys. Youth is the 
fertile soil in which the roots of good and the 
roots of bad find rapid and deep lodgment. 
The problem of planting the good becomes in- 
creasingly complex because each year of our 



PITTSBURG CONVENTION 281 

rushing, money-getting, glittering age is cre- 
ating, more than the last, tendencies and situa- 
tions which work against the development of 
strong, symmetrical manhood. 

Arnold, the peerless master of Eugby, once 
said, "The management of boys has all the in- 
terest of a great game of chess with living crea- 
tures for pawns and pieces and your adversary 
in plain English — the Devil, who truly plays a 
tough game, and one hard to beat. ' ' In the fifty 
years since these words were spoken the game 
has become vastly more strenuous and trying, 
in America at least, than it was in the early 
days. It is decidedly easier to bring up a boy 
whose hands grasp the handles of a plow than 
one who works the levers of an automobile. Dif- 
ficulties there always have been, and, indeed, 
always will be — difficulties so seemingly insur- 
mountable that those of us whose lives are con- 
stantly thrown with boys and who face each day 
new and trying situations are sometimes tempted 
to exclaim with the shepherd of "The Winter's 
Tale, ' ' " I would there were no age between six- 
teen and three and twenty, or that youth would 
sleep out the rest. ' ' But the real man welcomes 
the real contest, and each apparent defeat opens 
our eyes to some new avenue of access to the 
innermost citadel of a boy's being. Brother- 
hood suggests virility, and virility will win the 
contest. Some of the difficulty disappears when 
we realize that we are dealing, not with minia- 
ture men, but with a distinct type of being who 



282 THE PRESBYTERIAN BROTHERHOOD 

lives in a world of his own, a world very like 
that our ancestors inhabited in semibarbaric 
days, a world in which color, action, light and 
noise take the place of the more subdued and 
reflective elements of our maturer years. Na- 
ture somehow has a way of dropping a curtain 
back of most of us, shutting off our youthful 
days so that we look with real perplexity on 
the actions of those who are simply living out 
the traits that boys have had and will have for 
centuries unnumbered. Consider then this rest- 
less, trying boy as but yourself of yesterday, and 
raise the curtain for the light that will surely 
come. Study the boy from his standpoint. See 
him in his natural environment, not in an arti- 
ficial one created for him, no matter how well 
arranged the latter may be. Some one has truly 
said : "I doubt if any teacher ever became well 
acquainted with a boy in the Sunday-school 
class or junior devotional meeting. More of the 
lad is usually exposed during a ball game Sat- 
urday morning." 

Difficulty in mutual contact is created by the 
man, not the boy. The boy proposition is one 
in which casual impressions count for little be- 
cause the seen boy and the real boy are very 
different creatures. Arthur Benson goes far in 
the right direction when in the ' ' Upton Letters ' ' 
he says of boys : ' l They seem in public to want 
to show their worst side, to be ashamed of be- 
ing supposed to be good or interested or thought- 
ful or tender-hearted. They are afraid of seem- 



PITTSBURG CONVENTION 283 

ing better than they are, and pleased to appear 
worse than they are." So we must reach be- 
hind this artificial exterior which the boy con- 
structs, not because of badness, but on account 
of shyness, suspicion and lack of self-assurance ; 
we must remember always that the boy is not at 
an age where cold logic and intellectual super- 
iority will greatly appeal to him; he must be 
reached through understanding and sympathy. 
By the exercise of these qualities alone we build 
the foundation on which the whole structure of 
manly character will later rise. Says Judge 
Lindsay, profound student and stanch friend 
of the misunderstood boy: "When you seek a 
b°y> g° after his heart. But you can't get his 
heart by sending him to jail and you can't win 
him by an act that is puerile and weak. Learn 
to sympathize with him. Sympathy is the divin- 
est quality of the human heart." Sympathy 
then is the thing which we Brotherhood men 
must develop in seeking to do our part in God's 
work of laying hold on the shy, impressionable 
lad. How can we show this sympathy? First 
and foremost by revealing to the lad our true 
selves. ' There is no class of people in the world 
who penetrate sham more rapidly and despise 
it more thoroughly than boys, and the man who 
poses will have scant power with them. A boy 
is a great hero worshiper. He is drawn to him 
who can do something well, and likewise is 
driven from him who tries and can't. 

If baseball is not among your accomplish- 



284 THE PRESBYTEKIAN BROTHERHOOD 

nients yon will not gain the boy's sympathies 
by tearing off yonr coat and entering the ball 
game. Likewise if yon were not intended for a 
story-teller, pray refrain. Do not feel either 
that you have to act the clown to get that boy. 
The only possible thing yon will demonstrate is 
a part of Darwin's theory, and this yonr friend 
is too youthful to understand. Sympathy will 
come far faster if you are a good "rooter," in- 
terested listener and a dignified elder brother. 
Then develop those elements in which you can 
be a hero to the boy, for dormant in every man 
there are some such elements, be they along 
athletic, narrative, travel, hunting, camping or 
any one of a thousand lines. Prove to him that 
best of all you are "square," and soon or late 
will come the realization that he is bound to 
you with bands of steel. 

Having gained his confidence there are five 
instrumentalities which are given us to bring 
boyhood through perils of youth to the strength 
of manhood — religious interest, moral education, 
school environment, home influence and social 
activity. How delicately and tactfully must we 
approach the subject of a boy's religion! That 
high-strung, nervous, restless youth is going to 
need something beside the scholarly, logical ser- 
mon from which you and I gain so much. The 
senior prayer meeting gives the boy a good les- 
son in self-control, but I doubt that it does 
much else. "When the church learns," states 
Jump, "that a love for prayer meetings is not 



PITTSBURG CONVENTION 285 

one of the instincts born into a boy at puberty, 
and discovers that it owes pastoral services to 
shouting boys as well as to ripening saints, and 
that stories told on Sunday lead to boyish con- 
fidences on Monday, then it will better fulfill 
its function and the churching of the boys 
to-day will be the manning of the church to- 
morrow." 

The "ripening saint" to whom the writer re- 
fers can with profit listen for forty minutes to 
the utterances of fine gospel truths — the boy 
flounders, misses the connection and at last, 
mentally weary, loses interest. I feel that the 
boy should have his own regular church serv- 
ices in which he is talked to briefly and plainly 
on the simple yet awful questions which no boy 
can evade and in the correct answering of which 
rests so much of his future happiness. In these 
services there should be some of the grand 
marching hymns of the church, and something 
of what might be called the ritualistic, repeating 
perhaps the Twenty-third Psalm, the Apostles' 
Creed and the Ten Commandments. Education, 
religious as well as secular, is losing much by 
discouraging accurate memorization. In the last 
analysis the boy usually gets his first religious 
insight through the life of father, elder brother 
or other hero. Moses and Joseph and Solomon 
are dry bones to him, but the father who is al- 
ways gentle and lovable in the house, the big 
brother who is a true sportsman, the friend who 
is square, call for an emulation which soon or 



286 THE PBESBYTEBIAN BBOTHEBHOOD 

late leads the boy, if those he loves are loyal to 
their Master, back to the cause, and there he 
finds the ideal of every wholesome man and boy 
— the strong, the sinless Christ. Having found 
the Christ the way to keep the boy near him 
is through altruistic activity. I have seen pure 
joy come into the life of a lad who carried a 
basket of food his spending money had bought 
to a home of poverty at Christmastide ; a joy 
which made Christmas afterward a new and 
holy thing to him. A boy 's religion is ' ' religion 
in action." 

Closely allied to a boy's religious education 
is his moral development. At fourteen or fif- 
teen the choice is forced upon him as to whether 
he will be a moral or an immoral man. As his 
association and guidance are during a period 
of not more than four years thereafter, so will 
his knowledge of good and evil and his attitude 
toward them be through life. Forcing them- 
selves first to his attention come the problems 
of sex, problems we cannot overlook no matter 
how much we may wish we could escape them. 
The Devil's agents, far from ignoring, make 
most of their converts through this instrumen- 
tality. So we Brotherhood men must watch the 
young fellows we wish to win. We must in that 
critical moment of manhood's dawn tell the 
beautiful and sacred facts of being honestly and 
fully, and we must, I believe, tell them indivi- 
dually. I have seen few instances where public 
lectures did more good than harm. David H. 



PITTSBURG CONVENTION 287 

Porter recently said, "You can lead a boy to a 
moral lecture but you cannot make him thus a 
moral creature." But you and I can, in quiet, 
straight talks with the individual go far in mak- 
ing him hold his body sacred, and hold the 
thought of all womanhood sacred because of his 
mother-love. 

Our duty is not done with the quiet talk, how- 
ever. Satan is not a union workman. He is on 
duty twenty-four hours a day, with his depraved 
theater, vicious company, lewd billboard pictures 
and a thousand similar devices. Are we fight- 
ing him here? Are we urging any legislation 
in our cities that will make it safer for a boy to 
walk the streets? Are we offering wholesome 
amusements to offset each vicious one? An idle 
boy is on the road to immorality. Thought is 
the salvation of the man, action of the boy. 
Eecent investigations have unearthed surprising 
conditions among our youth as to gambling and 
petty dishonesty. Do we actually know about 
conditions in our several communities? Or are 
we going on the theory that " "lis folly to be 
wise"? The moral standing of the majority of 
boys is undeniably lower than twenty years ago, 
and it is the men who are responsible for it. 
When we stop electing libertines, gamblers and 
drunkards to offices of trust and honor because 
mayhap they are good politicians, then may we 
hope to see this low tide of youthful morals 
rapidly turn. In the meantime let us safeguard 
our boys' morals, first, by quiet, manly instruc- 



288 THE PRESBYTERIAN BROTHERHOOD 

tion, then by filling each waking hour with 
wholesome work and recreation. 

" To do this I would have to give up my busi- 
ness," you say. Not at all. From nine in the 
morning until three in the afternoon the boy is 
in school, and if we have done our duty as Chris- 
tian citizens in electing competent school officials 
and providing adequate sanitary school build- 
ings and playgrounds, paved with something 
besides brick and containing more than a hun- 
dred square feet, he could be in no better moral 
atmosphere, and this I say without wrestling with 
the momentous question, the Bible in the public 
schools. I would a thousand times rather have 
my child in the room of a teacher who never 
publicly read the Bible and who did not try 
to point a moral from every tale, but who 
lived a calm, clean, wholesome life in school 
and out, than in a room where the gospel was 
each day mechanically read by one whose life 
was a contradiction of the precepts expressed. 
May I, a schoolmaster, suggest that when you 
have done a citizen's duty in selecting wise 
leaders, the less you interfere with school dis- 
cipline, the more strongly you stand behind the 
teacher, the better will it be for the boy? You 
would smile, would you not, if the teacher should 
come into your office and tell you how to run 
your law, or grocery or dry-goods business. 
The teacher likewise smiles, if he doesn't groan, 
as you suggest to him how to conduct the pro- 
fession in which he is just as much of a special- 



PITTSBURG CONVENTION 289 

ist as you in yours. An alarming situation in 
this country is disrespect for authority, and that 
parent who aids a student in insubordination, 
whether it be in lessons, athletics or that exalted 
and aristocratic social institution known as the 
high school fraternity, is but storing up trouble 
both for home and for state. 

The weakness of our public school arrange- 
ment lies in the long vacations, which many 
times are mere periods of delinquency. No 
other occupation for the summer months has 
been found which compares in any way with the 
camps, which take the boys away from the temp- 
tations of the city into God's out of doors, under 
competent supervision, and which are supported 
either by parents of the campers or by outside 
contribution. What better activity could a 
Brotherhood circle have during the next few 
months than the development of leadership and 
method for a boys' camp during the coming 
summer? Returning to our school-day schedule 
— we must ask where is the boy after three 
o'clock? On the street, perhaps, or in the bil- 
liard hall? At the five-cent theater? Well, 
wherever he is now we should see to it that to- 
morrow he is within the influence of that best 
place for a boy — the home. 

In his book, the teacher, George Herbert 
Palmer, states : i ' The home which has hitherto 
been the fundamental agency for fostering 
morality is just now in sore need of repair. We 
can no longer depend on it alone for moral 



290 THE PRESBYTERIAN BROTHERHOOD 

guardianship. It must be supplemented, pos- 
sibly reconstructed. New dangers to it have 
arisen. In the complex civilization of the 
city ... in the substitution of the apartment for 
the house, in the greater ease of divorce, in the 
large freedom now given to children . . . there 
are perils for boy and girl that did not exist 
before ; and while these changes in the outward 
form of domestic life are advancing, certain 
protections against moral peril which the home 
formerly afforded have decayed. It would be 
curious to ascertain in how many families of our 
immediate time daily prayers are used, and to 
compare the number with that of those in which 
the holy practice was common fifty years ago. 
It would be interesting to know how frequently 
parents to-day converse with their children on 
subjects serious, pious or personal. The hurry 
of modern life has swept away many uplifting 
intimacies. In families which prize them most 
a few moments only can be had each day for 
such fortifying things. Domestic training has 
shrunk, while the training of haphazard com- 
panions, the training of the street and the train- 
ing of the newspaper have acquired a potency 
hitherto unknown." 

If the men of the Brotherhood are to make 
the boys of this generation strong we must stand 
for the integrity and attractiveness of the home. 
Some of us have reason to thank God that we 
were brought up in homes where fathers and 
mothers were lovers always, where morning 



PITTSBUBG CONVENTION 291 

worship was as regular as breakfast and where 
baseball was not tabooed from the back yard, 
where the parents realized that the game was 
worth the occasional window glass. 

The home to-day is not the home of yesterday 
because of changed industrial and social con- 
ditions. The fight for existence and for social 
recognition make father and mother mere lodg- 
ers. The apartment gives no chance for the 
."chores" which were the salvation of many a 
boy twenty years ago. But these industrial and 
social situations are not insurmountable. Leave 
business behind when you close the front door 
at night. You slave for ten hours a day to 
make a living. Why not enjoy that living the 
rest of the day? Enjoy the family. Be the big 
brother, not the preoccupied father, and the ex- 
cuses for spending the evenings away from home 
will become gratifyingly fewer. We don't need 
to have wine on the sideboard and gambling and 
doubtful talk by the fireside in order to keep the 
boy from desiring to come in touch with these 
things away from home. Such a theory is fool- 
ish and hurtful in the extreme. There are some 
things that are harmful for a boy, no matter 
what his environment, Wholesomeness and at- 
tractiveness are not entirely foreign to each 
other even in the twentieth century. 

Merrill thus strongly expresses what home life, 
good or bad, means to the boy in "Winning the 
Boy": "Ordinarily the boy is all right. I can- 
not say as much for the big folks. If I could 



292 THE PRESBYTERIAN BROTHERHOOD 

there would be no boy problem. Boys are as 
good as the homes they come from, which is not 
saying that all boys are as good as their mothers. 
Sometimes fathers are not a credit to their 
sons." And this from Francis G. Peabody: 
"A good boy is the natural product of a good 
home, and all the efforts of philanthropy to 
make boys better are imperfect substitutes for 
a healthy minded home." 

As the religious and moral development of a 
boy are closely related so are his home and 
social activities, and here again the children of 
darkness have been wiser than the children of 
light in understanding boy nature and supply- 
ing amusements which appeal to it. Again let 
me say that it is light and color and action youth 
wants. The "gang" is the boy's natural en- 
vironment. We can't abolish the gang. We 
must adopt and adapt it to our purposes. In 
the hours when church, school and home do not 
claim them we can keep the boys clean and 
happy by gang organizations, baseball teams, 
basketball, cross country clubs, camping clubs, 
literary clubs and so forth. Don't be afraid of 
athletics. Well-supervised athletics never hurt 
a boy yet, but you and I must see to it that the 
sport, not the winning, is the thing sought. The 
"win at any cost" spirit can be curbed as it has 
been encouraged only by the men in charge. 
Five dollars put into a trophy offered for the 
boy who in a certain period shows the best in- 
crease in physical development will do one thou- 



PITTSBURG CONVENTION 293 

sand dollars' worth of good in encouraging 
bodily care and purity. 

How finely we can fill Saturday afternoons 
with a well-worked-up hare-and-hounds chase, 
basketball tournament or baseball game. How 
interestingly can Saturday night be filled up by 
the club, not with a debate on "Resolved: That 
the transcendental theory is intellectually im- 
pressive, ' ' but with travel talks, pictures, games, 
music — always with the touch of the big brother. 

Have you said things under your breath on 
Hallowe'en when your doorbell tinkled merrily 
and you were the victim of other undesirable 
pranks? You had no right to if you had not 
provided a boys' entertainment for that even- 
ing with good, rough, tiring games and plenty 
of hearty refreshments. Here was a chance to 
teach good citizenship. Prohibition with boys, 
as with men, is a farce unless you put in the 
place of the things prohibited something just as 
attractive. There is a pleasant, wholesome, up- 
lifting recreation to substitute for every un- 
wholesome thing that troublesome, nervous 
youngster is doing. "But where," you ask 
again, "will our Brotherhood get hold of a man 
to lead the boys' activities!" The answer is in 
the first person in every individual case. The 
hired entertainer, guide and friend is apt to be 
like the paid mourner. The situation is in your 
hands and mine. We have been boys ; we want 
the boys lined up for manhood and for Christ. 
Won't we devote one tenth of the ingenuity we 



294 THE PRESBYTERIAN BROTHERHOOD 

use in making dollars to making men? If we 
do the situation is saved. The age is against 
the probability of the boy steering clear of temp- 
tations which allure him with an undeniable at- 
tractiveness, and will singe his soul into the 
oblivion of those who have sown the wind and 
reaped the whirlwind. 

Shall we sit gloomily by. Brotherhood men, 
with curtains pulled down, trying to figure out 
why the church is empty and the prisons full? 
Do we want boyhood's realm filled with prema- 
ture men of the world, their ideal of a success- 
ful career looking only to the rapid accumula- 
tion of wealth, their conception of a good time 
tainted by fast amusements, their language filled 
with the slang of the cheap theater, their bodies 
suffering from lack of opportunity for develop- 
ment, from unwise and extravagant diet and 
from the manly cigarette? Or do we wish our 
community filled with strong, clear-headed lads 
who will some day look the whole world in the 
face and say, "We are men"? There can be no 
two answers. We must get to the boy — reach 
his confidence and heart, and by showing him 
that our Christian manhood is a happy manhood 
draw him to our church, our home and our 
wholesome amusements, keeping him pure and 
strong during the fearsome years of his intro- 
duction to life. God's men cannot deny that 
they are their brothers' keeper. Yet daily do 
we do it by negligence. What does Brother- 
hood mean if the younger and weaker brother 



PITTSBURG CONVENTION 295 

is neglected? Nothing, and worse than noth- 
ing — criminal selfishness. Thousands of boys in 
every city in the land are being shown a counter- 
feit good time by Satan to-day. But how are 
they to know it is a counterfeit unless we make 
it ring false beside the gold of Christian fellow- 
ship? We cannot push the responsibility of a 
boy's destiny on other shoulders. The problem 
is appalling in its difficulties, boundless in its 
possibilities, absorbing in its interest, and when 
every man in the Christian Brotherhood, reach- 
ing up, grasps the ever-waiting hand of the Elder 
Brother while with the other hand he touches in 
love the heart of the groping, stumbling, price- 
less younger brother, then and only then will 
its solution be reached. 



THE BEOTHEEHOOD AND THE SOCIAL 

MESSAGE AND MINISTEY OF 

THE CHUECH 

BY JOSIAH STRONG, D.D. 

President Holt. — You have not failed to 
notice as the convention has proceeded how 
many subjects that might easily have lent them- 
selves to merely ethical or semisecular treatment 
have been warmed and suffused with the spirit 
of devotion and surrender to Jesus Christ. Such 
a topic is eminently the one to be discussed by 
the first speaker of this evening, the " Brother- 
hood and the Social Message and Ministry of 
the Church." To discuss that question before 
us we have a man who is a pioneer thinker along 
social lines, a champion of justice and righteous- 
ness in this world as well as of readjustment 
and recompense in the world to come, and at 
the same time a loving, spiritual, sweet-hearted 
Christian. I take great pleasure in introduc- 
ing Dr. Josiah Strong. 

Dr. Strong. — Brethren of the Brotherhood: 
I have an acquaintance who says he would 
rather be his own grandson than his own grand- 
father, which is a very concrete way of saying 
that the world's future is to be better than its 
past, and which I believe with all my heart. But 
I would much rather be myself than my latest 

296 



PITTSBURG CONVENTION 297 

descendant, for I believe that we are living in 
the supreme transitional period of all ages. His- 
tory shows that the great transitional periods 
have been the periods of great opportunity, the 
mighty hinges of history on which have turned 
the destinies of states, of nations, of civiliza- 
tions. I believe, my friends, that our own gen- 
eration is the generation of supreme opportu- 
nity in the world's history. I believe that 
America is the land of supreme opportunity. If 
these propositions be true, and I shall hope in 
the progress of my remarks to show that they 
are, then great movements of to-day and great 
movements in America have extraordinary sig- 
nificance; and this Brotherhood movement is a 
great movement. 

Why is it that hundreds of thousands of men 
are to-day forming in these Brotherhoods'? If 
there were several tens of thousands in the Pres- 
byterian denomination alone it would be a 
phenomenon worth studying. But we find these 
Brotherhoods springing up in all the great de- 
nominations. It is not a local movement; we 
find it in all parts of the country. What does 
it signify? I find it has everywhere two char- 
acteristics, in whatever denomination it appears. 
One is organization; this is in accord with the 
spirit of the times. Industry is organized; 
philanthropy is organized; transportation is 
organized ; education is organized. Hence, per- 
haps without perceiving the full significance of 
the movement, in harmony with the spirit of the 



298 THE PRESBYTERIAN BROTHERHOOD 

times, these thousands and hundreds of thou- 
sands are organizing. Whether or not their 
aim is conscious, they are laying hold of the 
mighty power which belongs to cooperation. 
Cooperation shames the multiplication table. 
One shall "chase a thousand, and two put ten 
thousand to flight." How lightly to-day has the 
hesitating snowflake settled on your shoulder. 
You were unconscious of its existence, yet these 
snowflakes, massing and moving together con- 
stitute the mighty avalanche which, with tre- 
mendous roar and irresistible power, sweeps 
everything before it. This movement, con- 
sciously or unconsciously, is laying hold of the 
tremendous power which lies in organization. 
What for? There is another characteristic that 
belongs to this movement. Everywhere it is dis- 
tinctively and undoubtedly Christian, not politi- 
cal, not primarily social, not economic, but every 
one of these hundreds of thousands of men 
throughout the length and breadth of our land 
would own allegiance to Jesus Christ. What 
does it mean ! The poet Southey says, " G od has 
two hands." Throughout God's creation there 
are marvelous correspondences. His plans dove- 
tail together. When the great emergencies of 
history have come we find that God had been 
long preparing to meet them. 

Five hundred years ago there was a great 
crisis preparing in the religious conditions of 
Europe. And long before men knew its mean- 
ing God gave to the world a lad who, through 



PITTSBURG CONVENTION 299 

the spiritual experiences of the solitary monk, 
was fitted for that mighty emergency; and the 
name of Martin Luther became immortal. But 
we do not need to go back to distant ages or 
across the sea for an illustration. Not a few 
of us remember that half a century ago there 
came to this nation a mighty crisis on which 
the very life of the nation depended. And a 
hundred years ago this month, God gave to 
America and to the world, in a humble cabin, 
a little child who, in the school of divine Provi- 
dence, was educated for the supreme time and 
place, and when the hour struck Abraham Lin- 
coln stood forth, the one man in America pre- 
pared to meet that mighty crisis. God, in his 
providence, is preparing this mighty army of 
Christian men for something. He does not 
waste organization or numbers. He abhors 
waste. What then is the meaning of this 
Brotherhood movement? 

There is taking place a profound transition 
in civilization as before stated. I believe the 
profoundest transition in the history of the 
world. The old civilization was one in which 
men were independent of one another. The 
family was the industrial unit. The parents 
could provide for the necessities of their chil- 
dren, independent of the world save only for 
luxuries. To-day different workmen in the 
same shop, different shops, different industries, 
different classes of society, different races, dif- 
ferent nations, different continents are becom- 



300 THE PRESBYTERIAN BROTHERHOOD 

ing interdependent. It is a radically different 
civilization. Men are being thrust into new re- 
lations. The application of steam to transpor- 
tation has eliminated nine tenths of space and 
electricity has canceled the remainder. Elec- 
tricity out-nimbles Puck and puts a girdle 
round the earth in an instant. The earth has 
been shrunk down to a small fraction of her 
former proportions. The nations touch elbows. 
Isolation is no longer possible. Men are forced 
into close relations. There is a paper on file 
in Boston which boasts the unprecedented feat 
of printing European news only six weeks old. 
The Mauretania crosses the ocean in four days, 
seventeen hours and a fraction. The earth has 
become only a fraction of its former self. The 
nations are thrust into close relationship; and 
you know there are many people who could be 
good friends if they only lived a mile apart, 
who cannot be even decent to one another if 
they live in the same house. When we looked 
across the Pacific we yearned over the heathen 
in Japan and China and India, and in our love 
for them we sent missionaries to convert them ; 
but when these Hindoos land on Vancouver 
Island and the Japanese and Chinese come to 
California, and these same Hindoos work in the 
diamond mines of Africa in competition with 
us, we say, "Get out." The races are being 
thrust into close relations. They are becoming 
interdependent. Capital and labor are being 
thrust into close relations. They are becoming 



PITTSBURG CONVENTION 301 

interdependent. And unless these relations are 
right relations they create friction. Now, my 
friends, the religion of Jesus Christ is a re- 
ligion of relationships. It deals with the rela- 
tion between man and his God, and between 
man and his fellow. I believe that the principles 
which our Lord laid down in his teachings are 
the solution, and the only solution, of the 
myriad problems which shame the wisdom of 
the wise, springing out of these new and close 
and complex relations between man and man, 
class and class, race and race, nation and na- 
tion. I believe also that America has become 
God's great laboratory for the world, because 
this new civilization, these new problems are 
created by the industrial revolution, and this in- 
dustrial revolution is destined to go wherever 
man wants and muscles work. This revolution 
is further developed in America than anywhere 
else in the world. In point of time it is older 
in England than here, but things move faster 
here than in England. We have carried the 
division of labor farther than any other people, 
hence the problems which come in the train of 
this industrial revolution are older in the United 
States than anywhere else. These problems are 
greater and more insistent here than with any 
other people. There is more at stake in the solu- 
tion of these problems than anywhere else, hence 
I believe that America is to-day the great reli- 
gious, political, social and economic laboratory 
of the world. To solve these great problems 



302 THE PRESBYTERIAN BROTHERHOOD 

here is to solve them for every nation. What 
longer leverage can there be for the uplifting 
of America than this tremendous fact that the 
nations of the earth wait on us to-day? If we 
solve these mighty problems they are solved for 
Europe, Asia, Africa, South America and the 
islands of the sea. Who knoweth, young man of 
this Brotherhood, whether you are i ' come to the 
kingdom for such a time as this"? If these 
problems which pervade society are to be solved, 
there must be applied to them the teachings of 
Jesus Christ. Does not that point to the great 
Brotherhood movement as having profound sig- 
nificance in the divine providence? The great 
circles of the earth, the meridians, radiate from 
one pole and gather at the other; in like man- 
ner these great social problems all spring from 
this generic problem of human relationship be- 
tween man and man, and gather together in the 
great problem of the city. There we find this 
great problem of wealth which is forcing itself 
upon us and which demands speedy solution. 
Science has given to us that perilous touch of 
Midas by which we are transforming all things 
into gold. We must find a nobler alchemy by 
which we can transmute gold into character and 
all good things for humanity. Now it is in the 
city that we find the extremes of wealth and 
poverty. It is in the city that Dives and Lazarus 
look across the impassable gulf at one another; 
only the workingman believes it is Dives who is 
in heaven and Lazarus is in hell. The problem 



PITTSBURG CONVENTION 303 

of wealth is concentrated in the city. More than 
three fourths of all our wealth is there. 

The great race problem is concentrated in the 
city. We think of London as being cosmopoli- 
tan. But, good friends, two thirds of the great 
population of London were born in London it- 
self, and ninety-eight per cent were born in 
Great Britain and Ireland. In our fifty great- 
est cities, thirty per cent of the population were 
born in foreign lands, and from two thirds to 
five sixths are foreign by birth or parentage. 
There are no such cosmopolitan cities in the 
world as Pittsburg, Cincinnati and all our other 
great cities. Not only so, but here are nine mil- 
lion negroes in our midst, a constituent part 
of our body politic. I heard one of them say, 
"We came here against our will and we will 
stay here against your will." They are here 
and we must get into right relations with them. 

We must come into right relations with the 
foreigners landing at the rate of a million a 
year. I could give you, if I had time, many rea- 
sons for believing that immigration is to in- 
crease. Europe alone could send us three mil- 
lions every year, three hundred millions during 
the twentieth century, and yet increase her own 
population — the source of supply. Immigration 
will continue until there has been an equaliza- 
tion of economic opportunity between the United 
States and the remainder of the world, and that 
will be a long time hence. Here is this problem 
of immigration facing us, and concentrated in 



304 • THE PRESBYTERIAN BROTHERHOOD 

the city. Whatever strain it places on our insti- 
tutions is three times as great in the city as in 
the rural districts. 

So, had I time, I might go on to show that all 
of these great problems of the new civilization, 
problems which like the great meridians of 
the earth are world problems, are concentrated 
not only in America, but are concentrated in 
our cities. Now if the gospel of Jesus Christ 
must be applied to the solution of these prob- 
lems, so vast in our rapidly increasing city popu- 
lations, does not that fact constitute a provi- 
dential call, a call from the lips of Almighty 
God, to this Brotherhood? I believe, my friends, 
it could be shown, if we could take the time, that 
the Christianity of Christ fits to the new civili- 
zation as the ocean fits the shore. I believe if 
it had been handed down from the throne this 
morning it could not have been better adapted 
to the needs of to-day. Who is to apply it if 
not our Brotherhood, owning loyalty to these 
principles of Jesus Christ and organized for 
action? What is that action to be unless it is 
the saving of the city, which is the key to our 
civilization? If the city is paganized our civili- 
zation will be paganized. If the city is Chris- 
tianized, the world will be Christianized. 

There is reason for your being organized 
presbyterially and synodically. You sustain 
most intimate relations to your respective 
churches which are thus organized; but these 
great problems are not distributed by presby- 



PITTSBURG CONVENTION 305 

teries and by synods. I believe these different 
denominational Brotherhoods must strike hands 
with each other. I thank God that there has 
been a federation of the churches so marvelously 
exemplified a few months ago at Philadelphia; 
but that is a federation at the top — valuable as 
the expression of a principle, valuable as the 
embodiment of a sentiment, valuable as a means 
to an end ; but I believe it is far more important 
that there be federation at the bottom, federa- 
tion in the local community. I believe that the 
churches of the different denominations in Pitts- 
burg united in the great essentials, and divided 
only in the nonessentials, and facing the same 
local problems, sustain much closer relations to 
each other than do a Presbyterian church in 
Pittsburg and a Presbyterian church in Cin- 
cinnati. I believe we must have federation at 
the bottom, and I believe that the cooperation 
of these great denominational Brotherhoods will 
be the natural means for its accomplishment. 

It seems to me that the way is providentially 
opened for these Brotherhoods to begin compre- 
hensively to cooperate for the salvation of the 
city. I do not mean simply its evangelization; 
I mean that, of course; there can be no salva- 
tion of society without the salvation of the in- 
dividual, but all of the multiplied relationships 
between man and man, which have multiplied a 
thousandfold, the possibilities of common good 
and common ill, must be sanctified by the Chris- 
tianity of Jesus Christ. Not otherwise can we 



306 THE PRESBYTERIAN BROTHERHOOD 

establish the Brotherhood of man ; not otherwise 
can we bring capital and labor into right rela- 
tions. 

But I desire to point out a little more specific- 
ally some of the things which it seems to me 
these Brotherhoods, striking hands with each 
other, can accomplish in the city as well as in 
the country, but specifically in the city, because 
it is the supreme problem. Different races hav- 
ing different languages, different antecedents, 
different religions, different interests, may be 
governed by a strong czar or sultan, but how 
shall such races govern themselves ? Democracy 
implies common interests and common action 
and common sympathy. Our cities must be- 
come homogeneous instead of heterogeneous. 
How are the "East End" and "West End" 
separated from one another? As far as the east 
from the west. How far are our higher and 
lower classes separated from one another ? How 
far, often, are foreigners and native American 
born separated from one another? We need to 
bring these several elements into close and fra- 
ternal relations. How shall it be done? I be- 
lieve there is a growing need and crying need 
for social centers in our cities to-day where 
men may come together and become acquainted. 
It would cost many hundreds of millions to pro- 
vide these meeting places in adequate numbers 
throughout the cities of the land. We have not 
the money. These foreigners would not come 
to our churches; those who most need our 



PITTSBURG CONVENTION 307 

friendship and our help would be the last to 
enter our places of worship. But, good friends, 
here are meeting places already provided, which 
are without denominational color, which are dis- 
tributed over the city and over the land pre- 
cisely according to the density of the population, 
as our churches are not distributed. I refer to 
our schoolhouses. In most instances these houses 
are in use only about half of the time, taking the 
year through. They belong to the people. Why 
should they not be used every day in the year? 
We need to establish meeting points, and what 
could be more favorable than the schoolhouses 
of our cities and our rural districts, where the 
children are accustomed to come, and where 
their parents could have no objection to com- 
ing? If we can establish this practical point 
of contact, which ought to be done without ex- 
pense, there is no limit to what can be done by 
men having the civic spirit and the Christian 
spirit. Here you can establish evening schools, 
you can have classes in English for Italians, for 
Germans, for all the foreigners. You can give 
to them a knowledge of their rights and of their 
duties in their new relations in this new land. 
They are often imposed upon because they are 
ignorant of both. You can establish your lec- 
ture courses, you can get lawyers and doctors 
and ministers and many others to talk on vital 
subjects, which will be of interest and of value. 
Suppose you get the right man in some neigh- 
borhood where Italians are gathered together to 



308 THE PKESBYTERIAST BKOTHERHOOD 

give a lecture showing an appreciation of Italy's 
contribution to civilization. Speak of our debt 
to Italy, and these men, who have been accus- 
tomed to be looked down upon, who have been 
called "Dagoes," who have been more or less 
despised and are conscious of it, and are, there- 
fore, apt to withdraw themselves from Ameri- 
can influences and become harder to assimilate, 
will begin to melt, and show themselves appre- 
ciative. We can do anything with them after 
we acknowledge our debt to them. So with all 
races. You can have illustrated lantern lectures. 
You are probably more or less familiar with 
Dr. Leipziger's lectures which are conducted in 
connection with the public schools of New York 
City, and to which millions listen every year. 
Similar courses might be carried on in the 
schoolhouses of all our cities. You can establish 
your boys' clubs, your workingmen's clubs, your 
working-girls ' clubs, where you can give any one 
of twenty lines of instruction. You can organ- 
ize your orchestras and choruses, your debating 
societies and your athletic teams. There is al- 
most no end to the work which j t ou can do 
when once you have established your point 
of contact, and that contact means assimila- 
tion. It means the Americanization of the for- 
eigner, and if you improve your opportunity it 
means ultimately the Christianization of the 
foreigner. But I must not develop these sug- 
gestions. I should be very glad by private 
correspondence to give any further informa- 



PITTSBURG CONVENTION 309 

tion touching details of methods if you will 
apply. 

Just a word now in conclusion. On the top 
of the Mount of Transfiguration the disciples, 
beholding the glory, said, "Let us make here 
three tabernacles," that the heavenly visitants 
might be detained. And while they would fain 
remain on this mount where heaven touched 
earth, at the bottom of the mountain a lad was 
struggling with a demon that the disciples could 
not cast out. The Master sent them down to 
the foot of the mountain. We have been here, 
brethren, on this mountain top, which has been 
one of illumination and doubtless of transfigura- 
tion to many of us ; it has seemed to us a point 
where heaven touched earth, and perhaps, we 
would fain abide in such presence; but at the 
foot of the mountain numberless demons are 
tearing society, and heretofore the church has 
failed to cast them out, I believe, because of 
unbelief. The church has not had sufficient faith 
in her Master's prayer — that prophetic prayer 
which is yet to have its answering fulfillment, 
"Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done in earth, 
as it is in heaven." Brethren, are we not to 
go down from this mount believing in our Mas- 
ter, believing that the gospel of God is the 
power of God not only to the salvation of the 
individual, but the salvation of society? Believ- 
ing that the gospel of God is the wisdom of God 
to the solution of these great problems which 
are perplexing the wise? 



310 THE PRESBYTERIAN BROTHERHOOD 

The nations are awakening to-day, new life is 
beating under the ribs of ancient death, inquiries 
are coming from all over the world for light. 
There are two unanswered letters on my desk 
from Turkey, from Mohammedans, saying, "A 
new civilization is coming to us with its new 
problems; tell us how to adjust ourselves to 
these new conditions," and a similar inquiry 
came day before yesterday from Spain. Last 
week another inquiry came from Uruguay, a 
few weeks ago one from Brazil. Yes, the wide 
world is wakening to new conditions. These 
new problems are coming to all peoples, and 
men are looking to us for the solution, and if 
we conquer not ourselves with the gospel of 
Christ, how can we carry a conquering gospel 
into all the world ? "Why should China and India 
accept our gospel to solve their problems unless 
we demonstrate its power to solve our own prob- 
lems? Let us have faith in God and faith in 
the coming of the kingdom; faith that applica- 
tion of these principles of Christ is sufficient to 
solve these problems in America and the whole 
earth. Let us consecrate ourselves, under the 
leadership of God's Spirit, to the solution of 
these problems. 

Yes, there is a new crusade, not to rescue the 
sepulcher of a dead Christ, but to rescue the 
vital teachings of the living Christ, for the full 
realization of the kingdom of God here in the 
earth. The knight of this new crusade under- 
takes no quest for the Holy Grail. Daily the 



PITTSBURG CONVENTION 311 

cup of sacrifice is at his lips, and daily he shares 
it with his Master. There is no cross embla- 
zoned on his shield, but it is luminous and radi- 
ant in a life of sacrificial service. This crusade 
seeks no distant land of Palestine, but aims at 
the New Jerusalem which is to come down from 
God and make all the earth a Holy Land in very 
deed. (Applause.) 



A MESSAGE AND PRAYER AT THE 
CLOSING SESSION 

BY JOHN CLAKK HILL, D.D. 

Mr. President and Brethren: — It is an un- 
expected pleasure to me to say a word to you 
to-night. I have been so much before you in 
the past that I felt just like resting and doing 
nothing but listen at this glorious convention. 
I have been asked several times to-day, "Well, 
Hill, what do you think of it?" And I would 
say, "It is great." It is great. It is not only 
great, but we have to go through the whole 
gamut of comparison ; the first was great, I had 
little to do with that one myself! (Laughter.) 
Then came the second, that was greater; now 
we have reached something still greater, we 
won't call it the greatest because we have a 
most promising future before us. I always had 
faith in Presbyterian men. When I first began 
to open the correspondence that came to me as 
chairman of the Assembly's Committee, answer- 
ing the questions that were sent out, my heart 
was rejoiced every time the mail came in bring- 
ing hearty and loyal responses to the movement ; 
and it went through. There was some timidity 
as to how long it would last. It will last just 
as long as you men have faith in God and men. 
I had faith in the Presbyterian men from the 

312 



PITTSBURG CONVENTION 313 

word Go, and I have greater faith than ever 
to-night. I feel that this convention has reached 
a high point. It has done wonders for us men 
who have been here. The spiritual uplift has 
been great and most helpful, and it will be en- 
during. I am confident that every man who has 
been in attendance on this convention will go 
home with a heart full, not only full, but over- 
flowing. He will inspire every man with whom 
he comes in contact. 

There is just one word that I want to say to 
try to help along the movement in widening 
the organization. I was somewhat surprised 
when I found in the report that only some 
seven hundred organizations had really affiliated. 
There are undoubtedly many times seven hun- 
dred of our churches that have organizations, 
and they are represented in this convention, 
many of them, but I think that this widening 
out of the convention idea so as to touch large 
sections of the country, and especially through 
our synodical and presbyterial organizations, 
will put greater zeal into the work of men for 
men, and so I would urge upon all to encourage 
all types of our church organizations for men 
to affiliate with the Brotherhood as such. 

The Brotherhood is to be congratulated upon 
its Council and its officers. As I said to Mr. 
Holt this morning — I didn't have a chance to say 
it yesterday — the report that was presented by 
the Council, and I believe he is responsible for 
it, was a masterful presentation of the whole 



314 THE PRESBYTERIAN BROTHERHOOD 

work; it will be an inspiration to the church. 
I wish every man in the church could read it. 
An old lady was bubbling over with enthusiasm 
over a sermon of mine, and she hardly knew 
what to say, so she came to me and said, "Doc- 
tor, that sermon could not have been better — if 
I had preached it myself!" (Laughter.) That 
is what I told Mr. Holt. All who are associated 
with him on the Council are most efficient men, 
and we ought to respond heartily to their calls 
for all kinds of service. 

Let us now reverently unite in our prayer for 
this the last session of the convention. Let us 
pray. 

Lord, our God, our hearts are full of joy, 
rejoicing, thanksgiving, to thee, for the way in 
which thou hast directed us with thy wisdom 
and with thy love in this great movement. It 
is thine, Lord. We trust in thee for continued 
guidance and blessing. We pray now particu- 
larly for blessings upon the officers, upon all 
the members of the Council, upon those who are 
in any way officially connected with this work, 
that in every detail of their service thy Holy 
Spirit may direct. We pray that all of us men 
may return to our homes full of the Spirit, full 
of the new vision of the Christ that we have 
had here, full of determination to live the truly 
surrendered life for the Master, full of strong 
desire to be a comrade of the Christ and a fel- 
low-worker with him in his great purposes of 
love for men. We pray, Lord, that in all our 



PITTSBURG CONVENTION 315 

churches the spirit of work for men, for the sal- 
vation of men, may dominate, and that all men 
in all our churches may catch the spirit of this 
convention, and that during this coming year 
there may be great revivings of spiritual power 
in all the land, and upon all the Brotherhoods 
of all the churches. 

Do thou cause great blessings to come. This 
whole work, Lord, is in thy hand. Do thou 
guide it. Give us light in every step, and give 
us all strength to do thy will. 

We pray that thou wouldst now bless us, re- 
ceive us, give us faith, fill us with the Spirit, fill 
us with zeal for Christ. We ask in this holy 
name of Emmanuel. Amen. 



THE CHALLENGE OF THE CHURCH TO 
THE BROTHERHOOD 

BY JOHN M 'DO WELL, D.D. 

President Holt. — We have now come to the 
closing message of this memorable convention — 
a convention which I know has been a revolu- 
tionary experience in a good many lives, and 
which we trust will show its revolutionary ef- 
fect in the lives of all of us. I want as my last 
word to repeat a remark that came to me at the 
close of the afternoon session. A strong young 
man of high quality drew me aside and said 
with deep feeling, "The one thought that has 
been in my mind throughout the convention, and 
that is pressing upon me now, is that if I can 
go home and live the right life, I shall have no 
trouble about the work." 

I do not know what message the last speaker 
is to bring us; it will be the message that the 
Spirit gives him. Let our hearts be lifted in 
prayer, that the Spirit may be with us as we 
listen to Dr. John McDowell on the "Challenge 
of the Church to the Brotherhood." 

Dr. McDowell. — The challenge of the church 
to the Brotherhood in the closing session of 
this remarkable convention is inspired by the 
responsibilities and the possibilities of the hour ; 

316 



PITTSBURG CONVENTION 317 

the responsibilities relate to the church, the pos- 
sibilities to the Brotherhood. 

Were the church to allow this hour of oppor- 
tunity to go by without a direct challenge in 
behalf of Jesus Christ and his kingdom here on 
earth, it would be guilty of unpardonable neg- 
lect and recreant to a most sacred duty. 

What then is the challenge the church has to 
make to the Brotherhood? The church's chal- 
lenge is fivefold. 

First, the church challenges the Brotherhood 
to affirm that religion is a fundamental neces- 
sity of life. The conviction that religion is a 
necessity is undoubtedly weakening to-day. 
Men are not asking, "What sort of religion is 
needed?" They have gone far beyond this, and 
are asking the previous question, namely, "Is 
any religion needed ? ' ' Materialistic philosophy 
and atheistic socialism are answering this vital 
and far-reaching question in the negative. They 
teach through the printed page and through 
lectures that religion is an invention of the 
churches and the priests — that it is an unneces- 
sary burden. 

Last September I spent a week in New York 
City studying the social movement as it is rep- 
resented in the street meetings. All of these 
meetings were well attended. Men constituted 
the larger part of the audiences. In not one of 
these meetings did I hear a favorable word for 
religion. Most of the speakers ignored it, while 
a few plainly opposed it, saying it was not es- 



318 THE PRESBYTERIAN" BROTHERHOOD 

sential to a man's life or the uplift of society. 
It is a serious matter when men give up the in- 
stitutions of religion, such as the church, but it 
is vastly more serious when men give up re- 
ligion. It will not do for us to fold our arms 
and be unconcerned about this situation. Sooner 
or later we shall have to reap the harvest, and 
the harvest will be social anarchy. This denial 
of the necessity of religion is the fundamental 
cause of the rapid spread in our own country 
of various atheistic systems of socialism. It will 
not do for the representatives of religion to 
allow these teachers of a materialism which re- 
duces men to a mere digestive tube to go on 
unchallenged. Let such teachings once take hold 
of the people and it will not be long until the 
foundations of our government and of our reli- 
gion will be endangered. 

The church calls upon us as Christian men 
who believe that man is made in the image of 
God, to affirm that a man cannot be a normal 
man and not be religious ; that to deny reli- 
gion the supreme place in life is to admit a fatal 
defect in one's nature. As religious men we 
must affirm with Daniel Webster that "Reli- 
gion is a necessary and indispensable element in 
any great human character." There is no liv- 
ing without it. Religion is the tie that connects 
man with his Creator and holds him to his 
throne. If that all be sundered, all broken, he 
floats away, a worthless atom in the universe; 
its proper attractions all gone, its destiny 



PITTSBURG CONVENTION 319 

thwarted and its whole future nothing but 
darkness, desolation and death. A man with no 
sense of religious duty is he whom the Scrip- 
tures describe in such terse but terrific words 
as being without God in the world. Such a man 
is out of his proper being, out of the circle of 
all his duties and out of the circle of all his hap- 
piness, and away, far away, from the purpose 
of his creation. 

The lesson of life, says Emerson, is to believe 
what the years and centuries say against the 
hour. 

The years and the centuries say with Carlyle 
that "Man's unhappiness comes from his great- 
ness. It is because there is an infinite in him, 
which, with all his cunning, he cannot quite bury 
under the finite." 

Patriotism and religion unite in calling upon 
us to affirm that man is incurably religious, and 
therefore religion is a fundamental necessity of 
life. 

Second. The church challenges the Brother- 
hood to maintain the reliability of the Scriptures 
as a revelation of God's will for man and all of 
his obligations. 

This is a call to stand for the supremacy of 
the Bible, not as a book of science, though it 
contains science; not as a book of philosophy, 
though it teaches a sound philosophy ; not as a 
book of literature, though it embodies the best 
of literature ; not as a book of ethics, though it 
contains the highest of all ethics ; but as a char- 



320 THE PRESBYTERIAN BROTHERHOOD 

acter-builder. The Bible is supreme in the realm 
of character-building. No other book can com- 
pare with it in its influence on life. The Bible 
built Luther, it made Knox, it produced Glad- 
stone, the greatest statesman of the nineteenth 
century. It made our immortal Lincoln, the 
most wonderful personality in American history. 

The church calls us to-night to stand for the 
supremacy of the Bible as an organization- 
builder. 

History shows that the organizations which 
live and grow and have vital influence are or- 
ganizations which are grounded on the word of 
God. The church itself is the best proof of this 
fact. Besides the church we might name the 
Sunday school, the Young Men 's Christian Asso- 
ciation, the Young Women's Christian Associa- 
tion and the Christian Endeavor Society. If 
this Brotherhood movement is to go on through 
the years, blessing men, uplifting churches, re- 
deeming cities, saving nations and capturing the 
world for Christ, it must build on the Bible and 
make the Bible the center of all its work. The 
church has many needs to-day, but it has no need 
which is quite so imperative as this need of 
men who know the Bible and who love the Bible 
— men who can prove by their daily life that the 
Bible is a living book, adapted to all the needs 
of the individual and of society. 

Some Brotherhoods have failed; why? They 
have been built around the dinner table, not the 
Bible; around some social idea, not a distinctly 



PITTSBURG CONVENTION 321 

religious idea. I see no hope for the future per- 
manence of the Brotherhood, apart from stand- 
ing loyally for the supremacy of the Bible as 
the rule of faith and conduct. 

Third. The church challenges the Brother- 
hood to assert unqualifiedly the sufficiency of 
the gospel of Jesus Christ for the needs of the 
twentieth century. 

A newspaper reporter asked me last week 
if I thought Jesus Christ could live in these days 
and do business on the principles he taught the 
world in the first century. This question is an 
index to what is quite general in our day. Cer- 
tain critics are telling us that Christ and his 
gospel are not equal to the problems of the 
twentieth century. They teach that the gospel 
is played out. I notice, however, that most of 
these self-appointed critics fail to remember 
that the Christ of the gospel is a living Christ, 
with all power in heaven and in earth. They 
write and talk as if Jesus Christ was still in 
Joseph's tomb. As friends of Christ, we need 
to affirm that Christ is here living to-day in the 
twentieth-century conditions. There is no "if" 
about this proposition. We need not stop to- 
night to ask what Christ would do if he were 
here. He is here and his gospel is not played 
out. It is just beginning to be played in. It is 
just having its first innings in some places, and 
if every inning is as successful as the first, 
things will be cleaned up. 

All sorts of substitutes and supplements are 



322 THE PEESBYTEEIAN BKOTHEKHOOD 

offered to-day for the gospel. The rationalist 
offers education. The socialist offers legislation. 
The sentimentalist offers reformation. All that 
is good in each of these schemes is found in the 
gospel. The gospel of Christ goes farther and 
offers that without which all these systems 
must fail, namely, regeneration for the individ- 
ual and for society. The church calls upon 
the Brotherhood to assert that Jesus Christ is 
"The Light of the World," and this light is 
sufficient for every realm of life and for every 
problem of life. As Christian men we need to 
affirm that the world can never outgrow the 
gospel of Christ. We need to hold that there is 
not a thought in philosophy, not an ideal in soci- 
ology, not a programme in practical reform that 
is worth while but is explicit or implicit in the 
gospel of Jesus Christ. 

There are some men talking to-day as if 
Jesus Christ had not anticipated the twentieth- 
century needs, as though the twentieth-century 
conditions were a great surprise to him. My 
friends, let us not fool ourselves. Jesus knows 
the twentieth century, he understands it. There 
is nothing in it that is a surprise to him. There 
is not a problem he is not prepared to solve, 
there is not a need he is not able and willing to 
supply. What are the outstanding needs of the 
twentieth century? I can only name them: 
Christian men, Christian churches, Christian 
cities, Christian homes, Christian schools, Chris- 
tian nations, a Christian world. 



PITTSBURG CONVENTION 323 

Friends, these are truly tremendous needs ; 
they are gigantic in their scope and proportions, 
but none too great for the gospel of Christ. The 
church challenges the Brotherhood to affirm the 
statement Mr. Gladstone made just a little time 
before his death: "Talk about the questions 
of the day ; there is only one question and that 
is how to apply the gospel of Christ to all cir- 
cumstances and conditions of life. It can and 
will correct all evils." 

Fourth. The church challenges the Brother- 
hood to maintain the adaptability of the church 
as an agency for applying the gospel of Christ 
to the needs of the world. 

Men inside and outside of the church are given 
to criticising the church frequently and freely 
in these days. When men hiss the name of 
a church and applaud the name of Christ, 
surely it is evident that they doubt the useful- 
ness of the church as an agency for applying 
the gospel. 

A certain prominent social reformer was out- 
lining to me a scheme for social and industrial 
betterment a few years ago. After hearing his 
statement and noticing that nothing was said 
about the church, I asked, "Where does the 
church come in?" He replied: "It does not 
come in ; we never count on it nowadays. It does 
not represent Christ or the people. We have 
not left the church, it has left us." Gentle- 
men, there is more of this attitude abroad to- 
day than we realize. If you do not believe it 



324 THE PRESBYTERIAST BROTHERHOOD 

attend the street meetings held in your city by 
social reformers, or read Haw's book "Chris- 
tianity and the Working Classes." 

Undoubtedly the church has her faults, but 
with all her faults we need to assert to-day that 
she is the only organization qualified in spirit, 
in equipment and in determination to apply the 
gospel of Christ to the needs of the world. We 
need to preach to-day that the church still dwells 
in a house by the side of the road and is the 
friend of man. 

Fifth. The church challenges the Brother- 
hood to make religion attractive and effective. 

The most serious charge made to-day against 
religion, is that it is not attractive and effective. 
I fear there may be some ground for this charge, 
for I confess the last thing I want from some 
men is their religion. Movements like this 
Brotherhood ought to do much toward refuting 
this charge, and they are doing much. I thank 
God that the days have gone by when men 
thought that when Paul said, "Put off the old 
man," he implied they should put on the old 
woman. The most interesting man and the most 
manly man in the world should be the Christian 
man. It should never be possible for a man to 
write a book, as Welsh has done, entitled, "God's 
Gentlemen," with a chapter in it on "Stale 
Saints and Interesting Sinners," or to speak of 
"Heaven for Climate and Hell for Company." 
The most companionable man should be the 
Christian man. If religion is to be made at- 



PITTSBURG CONVENTION 325 

tractive and effective Christian men must do 
two things: 

First. They must champion the cause of jus- 
tice. "What the masses are discussing to-day 
is not justification, but justice." The artisans 
of the world are growing hostile to organized 
Christianity because in their view it is allied 
with a social system which opposes the workers 
and stands for injustice. The things which are 
burning in the hearts of men to-day are things 
which pertain to the questions of rights, the 
questions of justice. Workingmen, especially, 
are aroused to-day over their rights. They are 
asking for "equality of opportunity." 

Certainly the church must stand for justice if 
it is to attract men of all classes. It would be 
untrue to its Founder and to its Head if it did 
not. We shall never succeed in making religion 
attractive and effective if as Christian men we 
turn deaf ears to the cry for justice. Our busi- 
ness is to build society on the mind of Christ, 
and to do this we must champion the cause of 
justice everywhere and at all times. 

Second. If religion is to be made attractive 
and effective, Christian men must capture the 
controlling power in modern life. This simply 
means that Christian men must formulate and 
dominate public opinion on all vital matters. 
Unquestionably the dominant force in every 
sphere of life to-day is public opinion. Public 
opinion determines the social customs of life, it 
decides political practices, it regulates the in- 



326 THE PRESBYTERIAN BROTHERHOOD 

dustrial policies. If our Christianity is to be 
effective it must capture this controlling power. 

As Christian men we must feel a personal 
responsibility for the character of public opinion 
in our communities, on such matters as amuse- 
ments, politics, charity, education, business and 
civic ideals. 

Eeligion will be attractive to strong men when 
they see that religious men are making good in 
these matters of vital importance. If religion 
is to be made attractive and effective we must 
show that it does not consist in keeping out of 
things, but in getting into things; getting into 
the sentiments, the theories, the customs, the 
laws and the institutions of a community, and 
transforming them until they conform to the 
ideals of Jesus Christ. 

Here, then, gentlemen, is the challenge of the 
church to this Brotherhood. If this fivefold 
challenge is to be effectively met, if we are to 
show that religion is a necessity in life, that the 
Bible is supreme as a character-maker, that the 
gospel of Christ is sufficient for all the needs of 
the twentieth century, that the church is the 
only adequate agency for applying the gospel 
to the needs of the world and that real religion 
is always attractive and effective, this Brother- 
hood movement must incarnate the spirit of 
Jesus Christ. All the resolves of this great con- 
vention will be worthless and the challenge of 
the church will be useless unless we as men be- 
come incarnated with the spirit of the ideal 



PITTSBURG CONVENTION 327 

Brother, Jesus Christ. There is no use in our 
calling ourselves brothers unless we have the 
brother spirit; there is no use in baptizing the 
men's movement with the name Brotherhood 
unless it possess the spirit of Brotherhood. It 
is the spirit that makes the man and the organi- 
zation. 

What then is the spirit of Christ? What does 
it actually mean to possess and be possessed by 
the spirit of Christ? 

For our purpose just now, the spirit of Christ 
is summed up in two thoughts found in the 
record of his life, "He took a cross." On this 
cross he laid down his life voluntarily for the 
life of others. The cross stands to-day as the 
symbol of the spirit of Christ, which spirit was 
primarily the spirit of sacrifice. My friends, 
if we are to incarnate the spirit of Christ, we 
must be willing to take from this convention the 
cross, forevermore to be the symbol of our life. 
After all is said, the only religion in which men 
really believe is the religion with a cross in it, 
the religion which inspires sacrifice for the sake 
of others. 

In another place we read, "He took a towel." 
Christ wanted the world to know what his spirit 
was, and so by act, as well as word, he made it 
known. He might have taken a sword or a 
scepter, but as he wanted the symbol of his life 
to be that which would be within the reach of 
every man he took a towel and made it the 
symbol of his spirit. It stands for service. 



328 THE PEESBYTEEIAN BROTHEEHOOD 

men ! Is it not true that most of us would rather 
take the sword and be conquerors of others, or 
a scepter and rule over others, than take the 
towel and serve others? 

The world is waiting to-day, not for the con- 
queror, not for the ruler, but for the servant. 
In our churches and in our cities there are many 
needy men and women and little children wait- 
ing for the man with the towel, the man who is 
willing to serve, the man whose ambition is not 
to get above others, but underneath others, in 
order to lift them up. The world cannot help 
believing in a religion that has a towel in it, a 
religion that inspires service for others. 

Brother men, the great Brother of us all is 
asking us as we close this convention to make 
the cross and the towel the symbols of our life 
and of our Brotherhood. 

Let us respond to this appeal to-night in the 
spirit of the young Japanese officer who wrote 
his English friends during the late war in the 
East, "I have just been ordered to the front 
where it will be a pleasure to die for my 
country. ' ' 

Men, Jesus Christ is ordering every member 
of this Brotherhood to the front to-night. Let 
us go and show by our lives that it is a pleasure 
to live for him. 



Deacidifted using the Bookkeeper process. 
Neutralizing agent: Magnesium Oxide 
Treatment Date: May 2006 

PreservationTechnologies 

A WORLD LEADER IN PAPER PRESERVATION 

1 1 1 Thomson Park Drive 
Cranberry Township, PA 16066 
(724)779-2111 



LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 




